Work-A-Holic

As you may have guessed by my extreme lack of posts over the last few weeks, I have been absolutely swamped at work. And while I have spent many of my recent days being exhausted and stressed and having mini-breakdowns, my exploit do necessitate some stories. And so I shall regale you with them. Elephant and Tigers and Sharks, Oh My.

Elephantitis
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself waking up at the crack of dawn, and driving 2 hours into the “depths” of California to the middle of nowhere. Here, we found a random ranch-type area, which was the home to two African elephants, Suzie and Baba.

We spent the day filming a re-enactment of a guy who was bitten by said animal which basically meant watching these ADORABLE creatures answer to the following commands:

Ears! (They flare their ears out)
Foot! (They either lift one foot into the air or go down on one knee)
Trunk up! (Self-explanatory)
Shake it out! (They shake their heads – we tried to make this seem scary)

We also got the elephant to pick up a mannequin and toss it into the air.

Elephants are geniuses. The owner told us that Baba likes powdered donuts so much, that if offered a powder and a chocolate, she will take the chocolate one, and shove it into Suzie’s mouth, so that she can be sure to get the powdered one and have time to enjoy it. At the end of the day, I got to pet them, and it sneezed and snotted all over me. But it was so worth it.


Eye of the Tiger
The next day, once again I found myself up at the crack of dawn. Once again I drove hours into the heart of this crazy state. And once again I found my self at a middle-of-nowhere ranch, this time populated by about 8 tigers, a handful of cougars, some smaller cat-like animals, a leopard, and a bunch of birds.

We filmed two re-enactments here, and both times those stupid birds would imitate the actors cries for help, such that a cacophony of “ooooh, ahhh” kept up the entire day. The tigers, though mildy uncooperative, were gorgeous. I wanted to touch them, but we weren’t allowed. (One older female was REALLY pissy, and would growl and hiss if we got close to her cage)

These tigers are trained and so we had them out of their cages “acting” for us. The only thing separating me from them was a thing low hot line – connected to an electrical current. It was not heartening when the trained would mention that this particular tiger might go through said hot line.

And at one point, it almost came to that. The tiger, Shere Khan, got very angry and protective over our meat-covered mannequin and went on a rampage! One trainer let off his can of pepper spray. Unfortunately, his aim was bad and he hit the other trainer in the face, who proceeded to curse and scream for about 20 minutes till he was no longer completely blind.

That trainer later showed us the footage of his cousin who was killed by their trained bear. So, glad I didn’t watch that beforehand. Yeah.

Aloha-Oy
Most recently, I returned from a four-day trip to Hawaii where we were shooting re-enactments of shark bites, sans sharks. It was my first ever time to that lovely island, and boy do I want to go back. We were in Oahu, shooting on the north shore and it was just beautiful!

We spent our days filming on a small beach with a bunch of super nice local actors, many of whom I had cast from BYU Hawaii. The local camera guy we had hired proceeded to sketchily hit on me after the first day. Gross.

Nonetheless, I had a great time, enjoyed the weather, the Hawaiian beer, and being away from LA for a few days. Now I’m back and looking forward to going home for Christmas break.


Going ice-skating tonight with some friends, then apartment hunting tomorrow! Next up on the fun story list: my belated b-day celebration at Medieval Times! An image to keep you interested: me, drunktown, alone on the dance floor after the show, moonwalking, as the knights and squires emerge to do pictures.