Remember I had a thing I couldn’t tell? This was part of it.
When I was a kid, living in Ohio, I had this dream that I’d drive to Hollywood on my motorcycle, like the Muppets. Since I moved back to California a year ago, I harbored what I felt was a fond dream that I’d be able to get to see them film an episode of CSI. After all, I run her fansite.
Eventually, I figured ‘what the heck’ and made a polite inquiry via Jorja’s agent and never heard back. So it goes. Then a friend of mine (who is welcome to name themselves) who was on set spoke up on my behalf, and as it turns out, Jorja never got my message. And apparently I should have just asked her directly. There was generally laughter, and possibly a sleepless night in Boston because I got the news while on the road for work.
They were wrapping up “Girls Gone Wild” and Jorja wasn’t in “Lost Reindeer,” so I knew my visit had to wait till episode twelve at the earliest. Oh the pain. So I waited, anxiously and quietly (well… to you, I was spazzing at home a bit and terribly impatient, what can I say? I’m human!), for the next call. I may have driven my wife batty. In the end, it wasn’t until December (right before I left for a work trip to Vegas) that we were able to sort out a good time. January.
This means there was about three months of waiting. I may have gone mad and had a couple moments where I was certain, certain it was all someone’s sick idea of a hoax. But it was not.
That gave us days of waiting to see what days would work best for filming, since while you and I can plan meetings months in advance, not so much TV. Also Jorja wasn’t in the first episode filmed in 2014, so that put an extra bump on everything. Finally the day rolled around, I took a day off work and my wife and I drove up to LA.
It was fun and entertaining and a little surreal (mind you, all of California is a little surreal to me after 15 years in Illinois). I had a great time, met some of the actors and the crew, saw some filming, hung out with people, and generally enjoyed my day up there. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to go again, but it was a wonderful experience, and just cements Jorja as one of those really cool people in my mind.
Who would have thought my silly homework assignment half my life ago would have turned into this? My career is what it is because of this connection with a total stranger I saw on TV. The world works in mysterious ways.
Oh and for a funny moment, when my wife asked me “Where is this in LA?” I grinned.
“You know in the end of Blazing Saddles, when everyone pours out of the studio onto the street and Headly Lamarr gets a taxi to Mann’s theater, being followed by Bart on his horse?”
“Yes.” she replied. I said nothing, and kept smiling. “No shit?” I nodded back. “You are going to cause so much trouble laughing.”
I didn’t. I had a fucking great time, I loved watching the directing and acting, and I got to hang out with Jorja (which was totally unexpected but delightful). She remains one of the ultimately cool people in the universe. She even gave me presents! I gave her a DreamHost shirt which I’d stashed in my purse just in case. Chance favors the prepared mind. Totally unexpectedly, we got to hang out for noticeable chunks of time and just chat about stuff. Normal life stuff.
And she introduced me as her friend. So … yeah. I guess I get to say the tl;dr is this. My friend Jorja Fox invited me to the set and we got to watch filming and hang out.
I’m going to rock the hell out of my CSI hat.