Not to be a Debbie Downer, but this week of recording Scrapbook Memories TV has been one of the most difficult I can recall. Being sick is terrible. Being sick away from home is terrible. Being sick away from home and having to think and be perky is the worst.
Before I left for Ohio, I started to feel terrible. Sore throat, chills, exhaustion. Maybe all that nervous energy I had been feeling was just illness coming on?
In any case, I boarded the plane feeling like I just wanted to sleep. Everything was in a big fog. I sat down in my seat and the next thing I knew everyone was getting off the plane. So I guess I managed to sleep. I met Julie McGuffee in the Clevleand airport and she is the nicest person on earth. So when she said, "You look...really tired," I pretty much figured that meant I looked like death.
We waited in the airport for about an hour. Beth Madland's plane was running a bit late. Julie kept the conversation going and I tried to pay attention to what she was saying. But mostly, I was trying to sleep with my eyes open. When Beth arrived we trudged towards our rental car and hit the road to Beachwood. Julie and Beth kept up a lively dialogue. They've been working together for so long that everything is shorthand. It's entertaining to just be a fly on the wall when they get going.
We arrived at the studio and unpacked the car and dragged everything inside. Producer Kathie Stull was waiting for us. We started to set up for filming and Kathie coordinated wardrobe choices. I started to fade fast and after a few hours, out of pity, they sent me off to the hotel.
Much like the plane ride, I was asleep within twenty minutes of walking into the hotel.
Luckily, I had a late call time (9am) the next day, so I was able to sleep in a bit. When I arrived at the studio, the green room was full of guests waiting their turn. I ran into Rebekah Meier again (who you may recall I bumped into in the ladies room at CHA). Nikki Sivils and her husband were there. Julianna Hudgins from Ellison and Lisa Singer from Elmer's were both on their laptops.
Sadly, I was feeling so sick that I didn't manage to do more than grunt at the everyone and collapse into a chair. I didn't take any photos. I barely lifted my head. They did toss me into makeup...
...where Karen did her best to add some color to my face and sparkle to my eyes.
In the afternoon, we taped "opens" and "closes." These are the opening and closing segments for each of the shows. They're not long, but it was my first time doing them. It was also my first time working with a teleprompter. Very interesting to read lines while looking directly into the camera. I kept wondering if I looked like I was reading. If I sounded like I was reading. Well, we'll find out when the new season airs in June, right?
At this point, my throat was on fire. You know that horrible feeling where you don't want to even swallow the spit in your mouth because you know swallowing is going to be so terrible? Yep, I was there. Nevertheless, I repeated my mind-over-matter mantra and went to dinner with Julie, Beth, and Julianna. They have all been in the craft biz for years and years. And though I had the personality of a wet rag, I loved hearing their war stories and getting some career advice.
Once more, I fell into bed and was out like a light. I woke up in a pool of sweat. My fever had broken!
On day 3 it started to snow. I sat in the green room and worked on my projects for most of the day. Here's a quick detail shot of what I was working on:
Towards the end of the day I started to feel more like myself. My throat still hurt a lot, but my brain was slowly losing its fuzziness. Outside, it continued to snow. When we finally left the studio it was a winter wonderland. One more sleep until the final taping of the new season!
Day 4 arrived with crazy amounts of snow. People drifted into the studio a bit more slowly than usual, but we all made it there. Here's a photo of me on set, feeling a bit more like myself:
And I had to get a photo with "the Julies!"
Left to Right: Me (Julie Fei-Fan Balzer), Julianna Hudgins, Julie McGufee.
We taped seven segments featuring Sakura products and some fun new techniques! I got to wear an ear piece for the first time and that was a very interesting experience. You have someone talking to you while you're trying to talk and demo and think.
It was also the first time that I had to think about time. Every time that Kathie would say "30 seconds" in the earpiece, I'd panic and start wrapping up the segment. But 30 seconds turns out to be a very long time. As was pointed out to me, most TV commercials are only 30 seconds long. Time management is still something that I'm grappling with. There are just so many skills to learn! But I love the challenge of it all.
I wish I hadn't been so sick this week. The photos you see in this post are literally the only ones I got and only one of them was even taken by me! But it was a good week in the sense that I learned a lot. Always a worthy goal, right?
I'm taping Quilting Arts TV this afternoon. I've spent a weekend sleeping and recuperating. So I'm hoping for a much more pleasant experience before I hop on a plane and head home to NYC!
Thanks for stopping by!
