Life In Review

Over the weekend I participated in a speed film contest- I am not finished with my blog on that event yet, but let's just say I was asked to do things I never thought I would do. Like stand up on a narrow strip of ceiling beam that was thrown in a junk yard in a baby blue dress while wearing false eyelashes. More on that later.

....The weekend before I worked on a student film in downtown Martinez of all places. This means nothing to most people except that it was weird for me because I grew up in this small town and I never thought I would film there.

That's my co-star Shea, pretending to wait for a train at the Martinez Train Station.

...Keeping with the film theme, my good friend and ex-co-worker Dennis Glasco, produced and acted in a short film that was shot for this year's annual A Place Called Sacramento Film Festival. Dennis has taught acting classes in the past and one of his former students, Nathan Reedy, wrote a script that was selected to be produced for this festival. This event has sold out for the last three years. If you get an itch to drive towards the Delta this Sunday, buy your tickets here.  

Dennis and Nathan Promoting Their Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MK6e_Xtm2E


...and in NOT keeping with the film theme, last but not least, my lower back on the left side has been hurting lately. I did a lot of driving over Labor Day weekend and it started hurting the next day. So I iced it, took drugs and it eventually went away, but then two days ago, the pain came back. I am a back-pain virgin, so I have no clue how to remedy it. When you tell people you have back pain, then all of a sudden, everyone becomes a doctor, nurse or healing guru. I have been told all sorts of things, advice-wise. Anything from "You should get an X-ray", to.."You don't need an X-ray"...to...."Your pain is emotional"...to...."You need a massage."

So I took yesterday off to rest my back, but it turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year and I do not have air conditioning in my second story apartment in Oakland, so I had to flee to the beach. Yes, I know, poor baby. Somehow ocean waves were supposed to help soothe the pain.

Okay, they did a little

But I was still hurting this morning so I called Kaiser (squirm if you must) and they had a doctor call me back. She recommended over the phone a Physical Therapy class and prescribed a high dose of Motrin. She was so quick to give me drugs, I think I could have talked her into giving me Vicodin if I wanted to. But I hate Vicodin, it makes my stomach hurt and i don't really need stomach pain as well. Good thing I am not a druggy.

I asked the doctor "Where do I pick up the pills? In that pharmacy line?" She replied, "Man, you really ARE a newbie!"

I HATE HOSPITALS! They smell and I find them depressing. Sorry that's mean. I am cranky because of the back pain.

FUNDED!

Our little-movie-that-could met our funding goal and then some!

Now that we have our $$$, we are officially in pre-production.  The location is secured, most of the crew and cast is in place, and because we are in a speed film making contest starting this Friday, we now wait for final instructions from the mothership loarding up above in the big P.G.A. sky.  Basically, we won't know our theme or genre until Friday afternoon, so our improv skills must be sharp!  I am sensing an off-the-cuff-shoot-from-the-hip type of vibe a la Bowfinger.

In the meantime, meet part of the cast and crew:

Cast:

Ellie Wheeler

Tony Gapastione

Nathan Cooper

and Yours Truly

Crew:

Director, Kerwin Kuniyoshi

DP - Jerry Yoon

Cameraman Doug Campbell

Production Assistant- Pam Saavedra

Sound Guy - PJ Reyes

Hopefully all goes well and we don't end up having to film a scene like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGu5X3Dy0I

I Have A Dream.....

I am working on a short film with a small group of friends for a 48 hour film contest that will be taking place the weekend of September 23-25th, sponsored by the Producers Guild of America.

We are fundraising for this project, so if anyone out there feels moved to donate (you can even give just one dollar!)- that would be awesome! As I write this, we only need $180 left to reach our goal and we have 4 days left!

For more information on our project and how to donate- go here:

Was I Speeding Officer? And Other Moving Violations

Last Wednesday evening I was pulled over by a cop in the quaint town of Pleasanton, California. I was on my way to an appointment and was a bit disoriented because I decided to listen to my GPS for a change and it steered me in a different direction from the route I normally take.

I came to a four way stop as I got close to my final destination. As I proceeded to make a left turn on the street of the chosen address, I saw flashing lights behind me, and I didn’t know why.

Puzzled, I pulled over and rolled down my window and stared at the young police officer in disbelief. He must have read my face because it wasn’t one of guilt, but one of confusion and so he informed me:

“It wasn’t your turn.”

I still looked confused. I didn’t remember seeing another car at the intersection.

“Have you ever gotten a ticket before?” He asked.

“No,” I responded sheepishly, assuming he meant moving violations only and not parking tickets. That’s another story.

“No?” He asked shockingly.

“Just parking tickets,” I confessed to him as I handed him my driver’s license and registration. Thinking that he might give me a break if he saw on my license that I actually lived in Oakland and was just visiting, I piped up:

“I’m sorry. I’m not from around here.” (Translation: I live in a town with real crime where no one ever gets pulled over for running a stop sign, doing donuts in an intersection, making illegal u-turns, speeding or jaywalking in front of a cop).

Unimpressed, he glared and reminded me:

“It was a stop sign.”

“Yeah, but I am all turned around,” I pleaded, “I was looking for a building on this street for an appointment.”

“I’ll be right back.” He said and went back to his motorcycle.

As I watched him through my rear view mirror writing something down on a piece of paper, I started praying he wouldn’t give me a ticket. Then a flood of memories all of a sudden came to the forefront of my mind. I realized that I had forgotten all about that one time I had gotten a ticket for making a turn at a “No Turn On Red” intersection in San Francisco back in 2005 while on my way to my then-boyfriend’s gig in a small club in the city. And then I remembered another time I got a ticket for getting in a “Carpool Only” freeway on-ramp, also in San Francisco. When I cried to that officer about how “I didn’t know” and “I didn’t see the sign”, he still gave me a ticket. Later that same day, I would get pulled over AGAIN, for apparently another STOP sign incident. This time I just showed the second cop the ticket I already had and cried and he let me go. Then there was that one time when I was speeding down Concord Blvd. in the city of Concord late at night in the dead of winter, when a cop drove up next to me and motioned me to roll down my window. I did, and then he yelled, from his cop car to me, “It’s too cold to get out of the car- SLOW DOWN!” Then he sped away.

Or that one time when I was pulled over for a broken tail light with a male friend of mine in the passenger seat of my car. When the officer asked to see my registration, I couldn’t find it and started digging through a bag of papers I had in my back seat. My car had been cleaned earlier that day and I took everything that looked like it might be important and stuck it in a bag so the inside of the car could be vacuumed. As I pulled out one paper at a time I looked up at the officer innocently and asked, “is this my registration?” He would look at it and say, “no.”

“Is this it?” I pulled out another piece of DMV paper.

“No.” he said.

“Is this it?” I pulled out an expired proof of insurance copy.

“NO! JUST GET IT FIXED!” He snapped as he gave up on me.

My male friend told me I didn’t get a ticket that day, because I was a girl.

As I continued to look out my rear view mirror, I wondered if this Pleasanton police officer was running my driver’s license to see if I had a record. Did I just lie to a cop?

He finally came back over to me and handed me a piece of paper.

“I am giving you a warning.”

Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

I still made it in time for my appointment and was grateful for the answer to my prayers. The outcome doesn’t always turn out like I want it to, but so far I am winning.

Theresa: 3

Tickets: 2

The Girl Who Went Back To The Ocean: Woman Vs. Wave

The weatherman on television last Thursday said that the weather was supposed to be in the 90's inland and in the 60's by the coast over Labor Day weekend.  The weatherman said the fog would stay off shore and it would be a beautiful day at the beach.

Putting all my trust in the weatherman, I got up the next morning on Friday, cleaned up and decided to head out to the ocean because he said that the following beaches which "faced south" would have killer waves, unusual for this time of year:

Stinson Beach (too crowded and too north)
Santa Cruz (just went there recently and too south)
Pillar Point (this porridge is just right)

I got on Yelp and looked up Pillar Point.  I was promised some tasty waves, a dirty beach, but excellent conditions for beachcombing. Whole sea shells that aren't broken? You mean I don't have to buy the fake kind at Pottery Barn? I'm in!

I got a late start as I left my Oakland apartment slightly before 2pm and headed towards San Francisco on that beautiful summer day.  I had high hopes as I breezed over the Bay Bridge and into the city. The sky was blue, the sun was shining but as I passed through San Francisco and drove towards Daly City, this big dirty cloud of fog came over the freeway and I began to panic.

"Don't worry," I told myself, "Daly City is ALWAYS foggy! This too shall pass!"

I whizzed past Daly City and greeted the first coastal town of Pacifica.  And it greeted me back with more fog.

NOOOOO!

This is not happening! This was supposed to be one of our hottest days of the year and I understand that our Northern California beaches have always had a bit of an attitude, but NOT TODAY!

I passed the first beaches in Pacifica and as I drove towards Linda Mar Beach, I saw a break in the clouds and hope for my future.

But then it went away again.

I hit "Devil's Slide" on Hwy 1 and the fog was back.  Since I was driving up a hill, I figured on the drive back down the hill, towards the next town of Montara, and then Moss Beach, that the fog would disappear.

But it stayed with me.

I couldn't even SEE the ocean as I drove through the Slide.  Was my late summer trip to the coast going to be a complete bust?

I was fretting as I made a right onto Capistrano Blvd. off of hwy 1 to check out Pillar Point.  I drove around looking for angry waves, but all I saw were boats docked calmly in a cove of water.  I was pissed.

I had cloud cover and no waves? This is what I drove 50 minutes for? I decided to get back on the highway and drive a little more south- and it finally paid off.

At first I hit traffic and I thought, "that's odd", but then I saw why.  To my right, as I drove slowly, cruising at 15 mph in a line of cars, were all the crashing waves I was promised. They crashed so hard, they looked like they could have hit the highway.  So I did what any other ocean junkie would do - I pulled over and parked on the side of the road with all the other tourists.

The angry waves did not disappoint.

Woman vs. Wave!

I realized if I wanted to get a better shot, I would have to put my bag down, get on a rock, and capture the moment.  It was nice to be able to put my bag down and not worry about anyone taking it because I wasn't in Oakland:

All of my personal belongings in there!

Come to mama!

Nothing makes me happier than rogue waves. I am not sure why I find them so comforting.  A close second to rogue waves, would be collecting sea shells and this time, the beachcombing experience did not disappoint and I filled up my water bottle:

Should I make a sculpture with them?

When I wasn't finding sea shells, I was finding sea junk.  It's always interesting to me what washes up on shore. I always wonder what the story is behind this stuff:

Multi Colored Rope?

Multi Colored Sea Weed?

Watermelon anyone?

Is that a pair of scissors?

Message in a bottle?

After a couple of hours of getting gritty in the sand, I got some excellent dinner at a local seafood restaurant, grabbed a cup of joe at a new coffee shop in town and got back on the highway feeling a little more satisfied than I had just a few hours before.  With inspiration for a new blog in my heart, I felt renewed to never give up hope on finding what I am looking for.  I can now check Pillar Point off of my beachcombing bucket list and can confidently say that I will continue to be- the girl who went back to the ocean.

Until next time...

 

The Girl Who Went Back To The Ocean

"Who the heck is this Sir Francis Drake guy anyway?" I asked myself as I twisted and turned in my little Nissan Sentra through the windy roads of Marin County last Sunday afternoon.

Determined to head back to the coast and find the beach I originally set out to find a few weeks ago (see my previous blog: The Girl Who Couldn't Find The Ocean), I drove in a mad frenzy for over an hour and a half on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in search of my final destination: Drake's Beach.

Okay, so this guy gets his own boulevard, his own hotel, his own cafe, his own bay and his own beach named after him.  Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't pay attention in history class back in the 80's and I have a lot of catching up to do.  All I knew at this point was that Sir Francis' one and only boulevard was taking forever to drive through.

Learning from all the mistakes I made on my last beach trip,  this time I confidently passed through small towns such as Fairfax, Olema and Inverness on my way to the ocean.  But after I passed Inverness and what seemed to be the last signs of civilization, I started to get nervous.

"Just stay on this man's road," I told myself as I continued driving for what felt like miles on end with no ocean in sight.  I could see why I had turned around and headed back to Olema last time.  The road at times, felt like I was not going anywhere with its open fields and cattle crossing signs.  Each time I would turn a corner, feeling optimistic that my destination was just a little further up, I would be greeted with a sign that looked like this:

(I can just hear my mother now- all worried that I drove by myself on this curvy road.  Don't worry mom, there were plenty of people on it and I was not alone.)

After about an hour and 15 minutes, I saw a sign that said "Drakes Beach" going in one direction and "The Lighthouse" going in another.  I made a left towards Drake's Beach, but I filed "The Lighthouse" away in my mind for future reference.

The day started late as I didn't leave Oakland until 1:30pm, (but I figured that was better than 2:45pm, which is how late I left a few weeks ago.) Arrival time (including one potty break in an outhouse behind a restaurant in the sleepy little town of Inverness): 3:15pm.

This was a personal best for me.  I triumphantly parked, gathered my things and got out of my car.  I did it!  I was finally here!  I was at the beach that had alluded me.

Hello! So nice to finally meet you!

But first things first!

Right outside the restrooms, mounted on the walls, was the education I was looking for:

Here's his mug:

Here's another mug:

That's right, Mr. Drake had his own gift shop.  Apparently he was a ship captain back in the 1500's and rumor has it that he landed on our West Coast shores.  But if you Wikepedia him, you will see that he was also slave trader. Hmmm.  Moving on....

Other gift shop findings

Alrighty then...

As I perused the gift shop while getting ready for my beach adventure, (and by adventure, I mean my search for more sea shells), I was given this heads up:

You can't see it, but the last paragraph reads:

"Please leave natural and historic objects on the beach for the next explorer, and help keep the beach clean by removing trash."

So let me get this straight:

By "natural and historic objects", do you mean these things that I collected that day and are sitting in my bathroom now?

Natural and historic objects

Whoopsie.

After ignoring the beachcombing sign, I grabbed a bite to eat at Drake's Beach Cafe, which, ironically, only serves drip coffee.  You see, they're old school, but they did make a mean clam chowder and it makes my mouth water every time I look at this picture:

Drake's Beach: Come for the ocean, stay for the chowder.

As I ate my soup, I started observing the local cafe staff.  I asked them how far their commute was, just to come to work everyday in this little town that had no wi-fi reception.   One young female employee told me that she lived in Novato and it took her about an hour to get to work.  It seemed like such a long drive for a job that probably didn't pay very well, but I suppose she was in it for the perks:

After my meal, I was ready to comb, walk the beach in search of buried treasure, cool sea junk, that I could maybe take home with me.  I stumbled upon the following "natural objects":

And the not so natural.....

  

 Go Giants

I decided to leave most of these objects behind for "the next explorer", and besides, all that jellyfish and seaweed wouldn't have fit inside my bathroom anyway.

I had worked up quite a sweat while walking and rummaging through the sand and decided to sit and take a break and stare at the waves while admiring other beach artists' work:

Scenes from a sand gallery:

 Does that come in a small?

Next thing I knew it was past 6:00pm and I really wanted to get on the road before it got dark.  Thinking I was being responsible, I patted myself on the back as I drove away from Drake's Beach at a reasonable hour, but then I hit a fork in the road:

I decided to make a left and head towards "The Lighthouse", whatever that was.  I mean, had I driven this far already, just to turn around and head back to Oakland?  It was still light out!

Thinking that The Lighthouse was just a few miles up ahead, I dared to dream once again that my destination would just be around the corner, but in a drive that felt like the movie Groundhog Day, I yet again was greeted with this:

Groundhog Day

I almost turned around  to head back to what was familiar, but my stubborness kept me going and in another 15 or so minutes I was rewarded for my patience.

I parked my car around 6:20pm in a small parking lot overlooking the ocean.  It might have seemed late for sight seeing, but other visitors were just pulling up in their cars as well.

Parking was down the hill from the actual lighthouse, so we had to walk up a small private road on the way to the top.  I followed a group of people speaking in a foreign language and stopped to take more pictures.

I can see for miles and miles...

I'm sure the residents don't get cell phone reception up here, but the view is breathtaking

And if you need to make a call....

The Lighthouse also had a gift shop, but it closed at 4:30.  So did the actual Lighhouse itself, and I was banned from walking down the steep set of stairs that led to my second final destination:

Stairway to Heaven

So I had to make do with views from the visitor deck

Aware that I was going to lose light soon as it was getting close to 7pm, I snapped a few more shots and walked back down the road to my car.  As I was leaving, tourists were still walking up the hill.  Don't you just love summer?

In front of the parking lot was one more trail, and had it been earlier in the day, I would have went for it, but now I knew I really really needed to get on the road.  But not before I veered onto one more small dirt path and saw a mama deer and her two babies.  Too bad I didn't take a picture. I must have been in a hurry.

I shook the sand out of my shoes one last time and got into my car.  This time, I was definitely heading home to Oakland and now that I knew the road better, I knew I would be back soon, and hopefully not alone.  And who knows,  perhaps the next time I seek out another obscure beach, I might learn to become and write about: "The Girl Who Found The Ocean with No Problem."

Until then.....