With Friends Like These...

I have not blogged since Friday, and that's not sitting well with me.

I can rattle off the litany of excuses, of course- I mean, come on, I've been working all weekend long, working every day into the wee hours- but the truth is, I blog because I want to, not because of some obligation that I feel.

So instead of complaining about work, as I do so often when I hit crunch time and start eating, breathing, sleeping, and dreaming about it, I thought I would share some of the small moments that I've had on this show that have made me laugh.

There is something about working on a movie together that brings people close to one another. We don't all like each other; that's a very nice way of putting it! But we tolerate each other because we all need everyone else. Movies don't get made unless each person is doing and contributing what they should be.

Although we may not be one big happy family, we are usually one big dysfunctionally-functioning family. We always muddle through. We're going through something akin to childbirth or war together, albeit less life-altering than either of those events.

And some of us become friends.

One of co-workers now works in a different building than I do. We used to sit together but don't any longer. He stopped by to visit one day and I wasn't around, so he took a Styrofoam plate and etched his chicken-scratch note onto it. I love this plate, I think it's endearing and sweet and funny.

Co-workers that know what flavor cupcake is preferred? They save otherwise horrible days in which so many things go wrong. (You'd really be surprised at how much can go wrong in the making of a movie. I mean, it's shocking.)

I worked from home yesterday (Sunday), but some people had to come in. I got a lovely note on my monitor that greeted me cheerfully this morning. Anything that helps a Monday morning, I'm in complete favor of.

The best thing anyone has ever left me on my desk. A cornichon, which is called a gherkin in English. There's an inside joke between a few of us about cornichons because one of my co-workers really loves them. I don't remember how this all came about (does anyone ever remember how inside jokes start??), but another co-worker and I were at Trader Joe's and spied a bottle of these tiny pickles ... labeled as "Cornichons" rather than "Gherkins." We promptly bought the bottle and left it on the cornichon-loving co-worker's desk.

A couple hours later, I came back to my own desk to find this cornichon, dressed up as a baby and swaddled in Kleenex, sitting in a little tiny paper cradle. His big eyes really complete the look, I think.

I mean, really. With co-workers like these, any situation becomes infinitely more bearable. So thanks, friends, for making the long hours seem slightly less long, and for making the process seem less mundane.