Saturday, November 20, 2010

A timeline of awesomeness...


I'm having trouble putting all of this week's incredible events into a narrative form right now so I'm gonna try to give a quick blow by blow and maybe stories will come later.

Wed:
11:30 am - I pick up a quiet but nervous Jesco in Boone County to take him to the airport to head to LA.

12:30 - Jesco and I have our luggage checked and all our stuff together so we stop for a bite to eat in the airport before flying out. In the process, he is asked for 3 autographs and two photos. I'm also asked if I'm his wife. Yeah. Great.

1:50 - Plane leaves. Everything is on schedule. Jesco's mood is good. All is well.

Around 3 - Stop in ATL where we change planes. Layover is so short we rush to get to the gate and find they've just started boarding. Timing is good, but Jesco didn't get any time for a smoke or some coffee.

3 (our time) -6 ish (LA time) - On the big plane, you can watch tv on a monitor in the headrest which Jesco enjoys immensely. You can also watch the flight progress, which he was fascinated by. He also wanted to know all about the vampire book I was reading. I may make him a Sookie fan eventually.

7 - We get off the plane and head to get our luggage and we find our driver who is holding up a sign like in the movies.

8 - We get to the hotel and meet up with the producer, his wife, and the director and head out to get Jesco's hair cut at one of the director's friend's houses. When we arrive, she has a friend there who is pretty intoxicated and gives Jesco some Fernet, which he didn't like. He was trying to be nice so he took a few drinks but tried to get away from her. We decide that, instead of the haircut, we need to hurry up and get dinner and a show.

9 - We get dinner at a mexican place where there was also a show featuring Troy Walker. It was an experience. Jesco loved him but, for whatever reason, continually referred to him as "the little leprechaun" or, occasionally, "the magic leprechaun." I was sitting beside Jeff Feuerzeig, who directed The Devil and Daniel Johnston and I didn't realize it. I was sitting across from Art Fein who, among a million other really interesting things, managed The Cramps at one point. Interesting side note, I was introduced to The Cramps by a truly terrible boyfriend, but I still love them. Of course, I didn't know who he was either, although his mention of Phil Spector at least let me know I was wayyyyyy out of my league.

*Note to self - When Julien mentions a person that's going to be hanging with us, google them immediately. Then I could have actually held a conversation.

10-ish - Drunk girl from earlier in the evening came to the show. And she hit on Jesco. Hard.

*Note to others - One thing I never want to hear again in my life... "I totally just had my tongue in Jesco's mouth."

12 - Realize that said drunk girl actually scared Jesco by hitting on him so hard. He began to refer to her as "the black widow" and became convinced that she had actually been trying to poison him by sharing her drink with him earlier in the evening.

1ish - Head home, make rough plans to go to Universal the next day, then turn in. Side note, our hotel rooms were all suites and had fireplaces in them. They were brutally awesome.

Thursday:
7 am - I wake up and decide to hurry and head out to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes.

8 - Walk to Magnolia, which turns out to be much further than I expected but meant I got to check out some of the area. On the way back, meet up with the producer and his wife (who is awesome, which I think is because she was born on the exact same day I was) for breakfast at a nice diner. Find out that Jesco is feeling crappy.

10 - Get Jesco some medicine and head back to hotel. Find out that Jesco is now convinced that he's sick because of "the black widow" and is now scared of her. We give him a dose of tummy meds and let him rest for a bit.

10:30 - Julien arrives and starts getting Jesco in a better mood.

11:30 - Julien has gotten Jesco out of his room and his mood has done a 180. We head out to get his hair cut and dyed in Echo Park.

3 - Jesco's hair is did and we head to Home for food. They offered Red Velvet pancakes and I still regret not getting them. After about 15 minutes of trying to figure out what we could order for Jesco, who wanted fried shrimp, we finally got everyone good stuff and had a great lunch.

4 - Julien takes us back to the hotel to get ready for the party. In the process, I experience a truly surreal moment as we're rolling through Hollywood in Julien's old Caprice listening to old country music in German. Yes, in German. Very, very strange but not surprising.

5-7 - Getting ready for the party. I did two things I haven't done in AGES; I used a curling iron AND ironed my shirt. Go fig.
7 - The black Benz picks us up and takes us to The Smog Shoppe where the party is being held. The place is straight up awesome. It starts out with us and the American Express and Tribeca folks but soon others start rolling in.

8-ish - The money people introduce the "filmmakers" responsible for the movie. At this point, I'm sitting on the couch joking around with Jesco cause he had started getting really nervous. I wasn't expecting to be introduced. So they say Julien, then Johnny Knoxville, then Storm, then me. And I'm on the other side of the crowd. I hear a few "Where's Paige"s and holler that I'm coming. They pass a mic down to each of us and, again, I didn't expect to be handed the mic. But, they did, right after introducing me as the chick that saved their ass. It was really cool to be treated as a real and valuable part of the film, even though I'm a nobody.

9-ish - Deke Dickerson, who did most of the music for the film, began playing and Jesco would go and dance every now and then. Sometimes he'd sing. Sometimes he knew the words. Sometimes none of us actually cared if he didn't. There's something about watching him perform... something about seeing him so incredibly happy and receiving attention and just receiving kindness from the audience... I could just feel myself beaming at his level of excitement. And I looked over and saw the same look on Johnny Knoxville's face. And I knew for sure that he really did get Jesco. It made me really feel good.

10 - Celebrities everywhere. Most of them cool. I got pics with a couple and tried to sneak pics of some others. I was really impressed with Knoxville. He was funny as hell and could talk to just about anyone. Kid Rock was REALLY calm. The Situation was less obnoxious than I woulda thought. Angela from Bones was there and I was in awe (love that show) but I tried not to stare. And one of the Jackass boys had the same color hair as me. *sigh*


11 - The party ended and we were loosed on the streets of LA. We ended up at a gay bar called FUBAR. It was entirely too gay for me.

12 - We finally leave FUBAR, which is when I realized my phone (which happened to be the only place to find the number to call our driver to pick us up) was completely dead. And I mean not turning on dead. And chaos ensued. To try to avoid all the crappy parts, we eventually ended up getting back to the hotel.

1- An irritated Paige gets into her pjs and into bed. Then comes a text from Julien asking me to come hang out with everybody. I agree, but only if I can hang in my pjs (which matched my hair coincidentally).

3 - I am the first to give it up and call it a night.

6 - Jesco finally goes to sleep.

Friday:

Actually, Friday is kinda a sleepy blur. But, obviously, we caught our flight and made it home. By the time I delivered Jesco to Boone Co, it was actually Saturday morning.

And, just for the record, I'm still seriously tired!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely awesome. I'm sure you are proud, but you need to be. What a great documentary and you're influence was noticed. Glad you got to be credited.

Evil Twin's Wife said...

It sounds like too much FUN!!! :-D