Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Things that make you go, hmmmm.

So, I am sitting here on the plane at thirty thousand feet, kinda bored and decided it was a perfect time to blog, or do something with my time instead of just sitting here doing nothing. I am on my way back to LA from Dallas, and even though it was a super short trip, it was really a good trip. Living so far away from my family is something at one point in my life I never dreamed I would experience.

This day, and time it is really my youngest son, I really treasure getting to see and spend some time with. I have other family in the area, but never seem to be able to find the right amount of time, to get to see them all, and that sucks, but the main person I want to see is my kid, and as long as I get to spend any amount of time at all with him, I feel my trip is complete. It’s always a very bitter sweet journey returning to Dallas, since my oldest son passed away. It’s funny because when he was alive I never took the time, to take off and fly back to Dallas. I just always assumed he would be there when ever I decided to return. My previous part time job was a place I worked for three years, and I worked every single weekend for the entire duration I worked there. I never asked for a weekend day off unless I was actually working doing a shoot for the UFC, or I once asked off when I was shooting a wedding. I was raised to be responsible and loyal to your employer. So, I always felt totally guilty if I asked for a day off, because I actually believed in my feeble little mind this employer would be loyal to me, and take care of me if I were loyal to them. Looking back now, I was a real idiot, but it really set one thing in stone in my mind. Never again will I EVER give up any personal time, with family, or important personal time for just a Jay Oh Bee, screw that. When it comes down to it, they really don’t give a crap about you, and you’re expendable in their eyes. So, I live my life now, and I will take any time off I want too. That’s why I actually like working for myself though. I work nonstop when I am doing my own thing, but at least I know my clients really appreciate the job I am doing for them, which makes it all totally worthwhile.

I recently did a shoot, where we were doing a calendar, and that consisted of shooting fifteen different looks, and we started shooting at 1:30pm, and shot until 3am first day, 2nd day 7pm to 12am, but we knocked out all the looks, and got a really great product, which I was totally stoked about. When I initially met with the client, I told her it was really going to be a lot of work to pull that off. A normal shoot consist of about four looks, taking about 4-5hrs, and it’s still a lot of work, but to do different backgrounds. Different hair, and make up, for 15 looks, it was a real challenge, but we pulled it off. I actually wasn’t sure we could, but I love a challenge, and to be able to do something and complete it in that time duration, really makes me happy.

So, another reason I decided to blog is I decided to share something that was happening to me last week that was really kinda wigging me out. I don’t get freaked out over much, scary movies etc. I guess I should start by saying I ride a lot of elevators. I ride them all the time, almost every single day of my life, so last week there is a specific set of elevators I ride a lot. Let me see if I can’t paint the picture here…anyway this certain set of elevators I walked up to them and stuck out my finger to push the button to call the elevator. I was standing in the basement of an employee area only, anyway as I reach my hand out to push the elevator button to go up. About a second before my finger touches the elevator button it dings, and the door just opens up, as if it had been sitting there awaiting my arrival. I was by myself, so I kind of just said…WOW, well thanks elevator; you know who I am, as I stepped on. The door closed, and up I went.

I didn’t really think much about it, thought it was kinda weird, but stranger things have happened. Anyway a few days went by when I was repeating the same scenario. I walked into the exact same place and elevator bank, had actually already forgotten about the weird scene from a few days before. I was day dreaming to myself, and just going through the motions, when I reached out to touch the elevator button to call the elevator, and again about a second before my finger touched the button again it DINGED, and opened for me. Keep in mind there are a set of three elevators, and again it was the exact same one to the far left of the three. The call button is in the middle, this time it really kinda freaked me out, and I just stood there for a minute looking at the elevator, but said to myself, it’s just a coincidence, and I approached the elevator, and as I stepped on, the elevator this time, does a really fast bounce up and down motion. Now, I am standing there with the doors still open thinking should I get the F**** off this thing? Being the Daredevil I am though, I decided to take the elevator challenge and see where, or what else might happen here. I was like shit maybe this is some crazy ass sign from the Universe, so I am going to ride it out, and see what exactly happens here. Keep in mind one of the useless pieces of information I have stored in my brain is that an average of 27 people are killed in elevator accidents every year, but I still firmly believe when it is your time to go, well, you go. So, I had a feeling there for a second like I was in the movie Final Destination, and maybe this elevator was trying to warn me of some impending doom, as I knew I had a flight in the next few days. Anyway, the door closed, and the elevator paused for a good 15-20 seconds and about the time I thought wow, I am stuck on here, it clicked in and up I went. I reached my floor, it opened up without a hitch, and I stepped off on my floor.

Looked back at the elevator, now like it was actually some living creature, and said…*Thanks* and walked away. It actually wigged me out enough, that I actually took a whole other set of elevators the rest of the night. The next day, I just went through my daily routine as normal and no more strange occurrences when I used the same bank of elevators. They simply worked like they always do, but I still didn’t forget about it at this point. I actually thought about how weird that was, and what were the odds of that happening twice. Anyway, a day later I was working with a good friend of mine, Michael, and I hadn’t told a soul about this up to this point, but I was still kinda intrigued by the whole incident. So, I told him about it, and as soon as I finished the story it was like a little kid going, WOW, that’s crazy, let’s go down there now and see if it will do it. I was like yeah sure, he was all about it like it was some kind of crazy ghost story, so I was like sure I’ll play along. I know it won’t happen, because that’s the way things always go, if you want something to happen it never will. So, we proceed down to the elevator bank, are standing there looking at them, and I am reenacting out exactly what happened, and what I did.

He is smiling, and totally into the story, and I am like dude, what are the odds of that happening twice? About that time…..DING! This time the middle elevator I am standing right in front of opens up. Both of our faces probably turned really white, and Michael looked at me, and immediately turned and speed walked away, freaking out. We got down the hall, and I said…see dude, you thought I was making shit up. I told you dude. He was like, man that is just too freaky. The thing that makes it freaky is the door on these elevators will not open unless you touch the button to call it. If it is setting there as soon as you touch the button it will open for you, but it will set there for hours until someone comes a long touches the button for it to open. These elevators were there…it wasn’t like someone had maybe ridden them, and touched a button on another floor, and then got off so it would open the next floor down it went. No, these elevators were setting dormant at the basement level, and the doors do not open unless you push the button to tell them someone wants to get on to go up. Anyway, the moral of this story, is like I said, it was such a weird occurrence that I thought maybe e it was a warning that maybe one of my flights from LA to Dallas, or Dallas to LA, might not make it to the airport, but the flight to Dallas I was a little nervous getting on the plane, but I have flown so much that as soon as the plane started down the runway, and was airborne I was totally over it, and in airplane mode. So, then I thought well maybe it could be the flight back, and the flight over was super smooth, this one has been a little bumpy to the point the Captain has never turned the seat belt sign off. Setting here blogging about it though I am at complete peace that this plane is gonna make the end of the runway, and I will get off, and go back to my everyday life.

Doing the damn thing!

If your waiting for my answer about the crazy elevator occurrence. I actually have no idea, just some weird coincidence that we all experience at some point in our lives, but I ain’t skeered!

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