Working the Weekend

Right now I work three days a week. Yep - just three! This would be perfect if it was a super well-paying job, yet even though I still have to search out other sources of income throughout the month in order to survive, this schedule has it's perks. For example, since the three days I work are consecutive, I get a four day weekend. Every weekend! That's a lot of time to fill with whatever activities I want (insert slightly devilish grin here).

As this last Friday approached I had a basic idea of how my weekend was going to go: 

Friday - go to the beach
Saturday - flying trapeze, help Caitlin (coworker/friend) with her friend's film/photo shoot for a couple of hours downtown
Sunday - church
Monday - help Elizabeth (friend/fellow aerialist) with her film shoot for school

Friday went as planned, I slept in and then got a light sunburn at Venice beach. The last couple of days however ended up being more jam-packed than I had thought!

Saturday I showed up to the studio for flying trapeze with some time to spare, so I went inside to check in with the owner (Ray) and buy a water bottle before heading to the rig in the back. Inside I found my friend Angel and a couple of cameramen setting up lights. I said hello and asked Angel what he was going to be filmed for, he told me it was for an aerial piece for a segment on Dancing With the Stars this upcoming Monday. During our conversation one of the cameramen walked up, introduced himself to me and asked if I would be able to help out - they wanted me to demonstrate the hammock routine that Angel was going to show to Derek Hough. I was unsure at first since Ray was expecting me in trapeze (and cancelling late results in paying for the class anyway), but Ray cleared the way by volunteering to take me out of the class and only sign me back up if we finished filming before class was over. So, suddenly I was filling out a release form to be filmed for television with Angel and Derek! I only wished I had put on makeup that morning. Sheesh. The shoot went quickly once Derek arrived, but since he took so long to get there I only managed to sneak in two swings with my trapeze buddies afterward. Luckily though, Ray let me do those for free.

After a stopover at home to clean up and eat some lunch I headed downtown to meet up with Caitlin's bunch. The film shoot ended up being for a look book for a European clothing line that's trying to grow their presence in the USA, and the shoot required us to sneak out of a 4th floor apartment window to climb up the fire escape ladder on the face of the building to access the roof. I'm sure it was a funny thing to see from the street. The original plan was to just do the rooftop shoot, but since their morning hadn't gone according to plan, they recruited me for a semi-impromptu drive up to the valley to do more filming at a carnival. By the time the shoot ended at 11pm I was exhausted and happy to be heading home.

On Sundays I usually sleep in since I have church at 2:15pm, but this week's schedule was different due to a conference, so we met at 10am. Before I left I received a text from Cynthia, my doubles hoop partner, saying she was going to be at the Taste of Hawthorne event all day with another aerial/yoga studio she teaches at, and that I should stop by if possible. She also told me to bring clothes I could play in. I changed in to some aerial friendly clothes after church and showed up to play around 1pm. Since I was with Cynthia they immediately ushered me to the rig and encouraged me to perform between their little shows. Little did I know that they were really going to put me to work! It didn't take long for the studio owner to ask if I would perform a routine in their next show, and by the end of the day I had performed my hammock routine three times without music (this was while I was playing around), twice with music during their shows, I helped teach paying customers (kids) some basic tissu and hoop skills, and performed my doubles hoop routine with Cynthia twice. We actually surprised ourselves by figuring out how to do our entire routine using a standard hoop - we had only ever performed our routine on a doubles hoop! Some moves were a little more squished, but overall it went really well!

Tomorrow (Monday) I'm still heading up to UCLA to help with Elizabeth's film shoot - but just found out a couple of hours ago that I'm not there to help behind the scenes like I thought; I am once again going to be in front of the camera! I'm supposed to be there 830am-2pm, then I've added even more to my schedule and will be heading to the Santa Monica Pier for their 4pm flying trapeze class with a friend who needs to use their groupon. I realized that this weekend has been a great opportunity to test my stamina as a performer - running from gig to gig and being able to put on a show (whether as an aerialist or an actor/what have you) on demand with little to no notice. Anyone who knows me should know that I didn't move out to California to live this kind of life, but it has been a fun experience this weekend! I'll let you know if I survive another day.