It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

Need I say anymore?

Wings

So my parents were in town this week. It was good seeing them, as I usually only see them around Thanksgiving. They've been out in California now for 6 years or more, and my mother's blood has thinned a little bit. I didn't think it was that cold, but she bundled up:



Look familiar?



They got to meet Kat. I've been seeing Kat for a few months now, and though it seemed a little early to do the whole parental introduction thing, it appeared to go over well, even though my dad was as goofy as ever. Oh well, I guess it's that Drumm charm.

After having brunch with the family and friends, Kat and I headed over to Floyd's to roll a little bocce. On our way to Courtney's place afterwards, we found the greatest door ever.



That's right. We found the door to the foam room. One's imagination can only fathom what's behind that door...

Later that night we had a friend who had a birthday party at a restaurant specializing in wings. They had about 10 different types of sauce. We tried most of the sauces and yours truly got a little drunk.

aftermath...


it took a few tries to get this one right...


the boys...


They also had a palm computer interactive quiz going on. As you can see, at this point I was not doing so well.





Well, there you have it, another week under the belt. In two weeks my sister comes to town for 10 days. Until then, keep on truckin!

Games, Family and Work

So the long weekend was good. I played bocce, saw Kat, and played many a board game. One in particular I was introduced to was Ticket to Ride. It's a game where you try to build a rail system across Europe. First game of the day and the only one I was able to win.



Another game I really liked was Carcassonne. This game involves a series of tiles that each display a section of a field, road, castle or some combination of the three. You take turns placing the tiles and essentially building a world. You also get little wooden people called "meeples" that help you score points depending on where you place them. It's a very interesting and fun game, and can be played with as few as two players. The first time I played it took me a while to get it, and the second time I did much better.



In addition to fun and games, I shot yet another job with Whoopi Goldberg this week for LA Weight Loss. For those of you who don't know, I shot a commercial with her last Fall. Here's the picture form that:



This one was a lot bigger and a little stressful, but we wrapped super early, and you can't complain about that. Here are some pics:

asleep on the job...


sets we built...


brownie, anyone?


My parents were also in town this week. They were cleaning out my grandmother's house to get ready to sell it. I got a lot of cool stuff like a a 25" tv, stereo speakers, paintings and kitchenware. It's nice to get cool stuff, but it did feel strange dismantling a house I grew up in and had many memories with. It was like taking apart a section of my childhood and releasing it into the void. Here's a picture of me in my grandmother's kitchen for the very last time:



Bye, grandma. I hope you are in a better place.

So there you have it. Bring on the SPRING!

Jury Duty

So, after years of postponing, I finally have to go in and perform my civic duty. I had never served before, so this was an entirely new experience for me.

I didn't have any paperwork, but I knew today was my day to serve. I had recently been called to a court hearing for missing my jury duty last February, and I arranged the date myself. So I go in to get my official jury duty paperwork for the day. I am at the window and the lady asks me:

Lady: "You going to be here all day?"

To which I take a moment, look around, and respond:

Me: "Only if I have to"
Lady: "Well, you have no choice."

So this is how my day starts. Seems pretty fitting. Anyhow, I trudge my way through the cold to the court building, pick up an egg and cheese and make my way to my day's destiny. There's a long line to get into the building through security. It's like going to the airport and I have to remove my belt. Something I don't like to do, as then you have to hold your pants up while you walk through the metal detector and look like an idiot dressing yourself in a goverment building. Anyhow...

So you walk into a big room with lots of chairs and sit down. The mood is very somber as you look around. Everyone is wearing the same half-frustrated. half-bored face, and nobody is talking. Someone sits at a podium and addresses us, starting off with a schmaltz joke in the vein of "So, everyone excited to be here?". There were few laughs.

The first thing they do is show us a 20 minute long video on jury duty. I thought it was going to be somethign informative and possibly helpful. I was wrong. The first 10 minutes are used to show us a reenactment of the justice system in medieval Europe. I'm not kidding. Don't believe me? Well, I thought not. That's ok, because I took a picture:




Seriously. The rest is just time filler narrated by Ed Bradley.



So we go through a series of questions: has anyone been convicted of a crime, is anyone not a resident of Brooklyn, can anyone not understand what I'm saying, blah blah. We weed out the non-essentials and move on to being called for either criminal or civil cases. I pick up the court newsletter and get to work on the crossword, which I actually finish. I never have time to do that.



So I get called for a criminal case. They shuffle us into a court room with a judge, representatives of the city (DA and Asst. DA) an a defendant plus council. In this case, the man is being accused of holding up a cab. They call prospective jurors up to the jury box at about 20 at a time. I should say, before this, they asked if anyone had a problem being on a case that might go to the end of the week. I stood up and made my case, pleading that I was a freelancer that had been otu of work for a couple of months and would like to take a job that started on Friday. The judge was not sympathetic.

So I had the privilege of watching the first 20 people be questioned by the judge and council. It was questions like, where do you live, are you married and what does your spouse and/or children do, are you related to any cops or anyone who drives a cab for a living, have you ever been the victim of a crime, and so forth. The questions were designed to determine who might have a bias that would make them non-ideal to judge this case.

Since I did not want to serve as I had work to take, I decided that I wasn't going to answer any questions or divulge any information I didn't have to. In other words, the defense and prosecutor were looking for the people they thought would rule in their favor for the case. I figured if I said and impressed nothing, then I would be relatively unknown to them, making me less likely to be picked as neither one would know which way I might lean in the case. All they knew of me was that I was 27 years old, unmarried without children and work in entertainment.

So, alas, I was not selected. Here's to another 6 years of freedom. The system marches on.

Back and on the run...

So I've been back for a week now, and I've already started and completed another shoot. Talk about hitting the ground running. I think the picture below says it all...




Yep, men in penguin suits. This is what my life has come to. It's also a fitting welcome to the bitter cold in NY. The other day, it was -13 degrees with the windchill. I though my head was lodged up Jack Frost's ass.

But regardless, it's good to be back. I have seen a lot of my friends, played and won 2 games of bocce, won $155 on the superbowl and been settling back nicely into my normal life, though it must be anything but normal these days.

My parents fly in on the 20th for a week. My grandmother died last year and we're getting rid off what's left in her house. The reasons may be sad, but it'll be good to see my parents regardless.

Until next time... TTFN