For those of you in the NYC area, you may have noticed the
glorious weather on Saturday. I did, in
fact, bring that weather with me from Vero Beach. Just to hold onto my Vero living. So, you’re all welcome. It was the least I could do!
My daughter had a go-see on Saturday. I thought I would tell you about the
day. It was a pretty typical go-see, so
you can get an idea of what happens. A
quick note on terminology: many agencies call “go-sees” castings. It’s the same thing. “Go-see” originates from literally going and
seeing the client. If you’ve ever
watched America’s Next Top Model, that’s the part when they drop the
contestants into some far-away non-English speaking land and make them fend for
themselves. Go to the designer,
sometimes try on clothes, stand still for a few pictures, maybe get measured,
and you’re on your way.
Here’s the timeline of our day. We were aiming for a 2:30 appointment at Pier
59 Studios, which is at Chelsea Piers – a mostly athletic complex right on the
Hudson River in spanning from about 18th Street to about 23rd
Street.
11:00am I lazily
tell my daughter we need to get ready.
We’re both still in PJs, and I planned to get us both into the shower…but
she protested and I thought she was clean enough…so I got ready by myself,
after I watched TV for about 15 more minutes.
(What can I say…I had a lot of reality TV to catch up on after my trip.)
11:40am I
assessed my daughter’s outfit. She had
on a baseball-style cat shirt from Gap, a cat applique twirly skirt from Mini
Boden, and Dalmatian print leggings from Oshkosh. This outfit pretty much exemplifies a Glamour-Don’t (did anyone ever read that
column? Do they still run that?) and
contradicts everything I’ve said about what to wear…but I let it go, throwing a
solid-colored shirt into the bag and figuring I’ll take off the leggings and change the shirt before
we get out of the car.
11:45am I do
my hair. Blow-dry and straighten a
bit. It’s been a while – I didn’t bring
my hair stuff to Florida because…vacation!
12:00noon I throw
some juice bags and goldfish into the mom-bag, approve my daughter’s shoe
choice (sparkly salmon-pink slip-on Vans) and get us out into the car. I’m a little off my mom-bag game since I had
rearranged stuff to bring on the trip, so I make an extra quick check and make
sure we have some photos.
12:10pm I set
my WAZE app (and if you don’t have this app, GET IT NOW) to the destination
address. WAZE is a real-time,
user-updated GPS/traffic app. Now, I know
how to get into the city, and this particular studio is about as easy as
it gets to get to. However, I ALWAYS use WAZE because it will
give me the best route based on traffic, construction, accidents, etc. It gives me different routes at different times
of day and different days of the week because it knows. It just does.
And you don’t question WAZE. Even
if you think you know much better how to do something, just follow WAZE. It will always backfire if you try to
outsmart it. WAZE tells me my arrival
time will be 2:05. Perfect! Plenty of time!
1:00pm I get
off the highway in Danbury to get an unsweetened iced tea at McDonald’s. It’s the best deal in town and really good
tea. There may or may not have been a
happy meal involved. (Hey, it’s My
Little Pony week.) When I’m back on the
highway, WAZE adds 10 minutes to my trip.
I’m skeptical, but I carry on.
1:40pm Traffic
has been smooth sailing. The day is
gorgeous. Yay!
1:45pm WAZE
updates me that traffic is building up ahead and sure enough, as I hit about 60th
Street on the West Side Highway, we begin crawling. Boo!
Here’s the thing about the city in April. This is when the first really great weather
happens. April 18th, I’m
thinking, is probably on the late end.
For sure, however, this is when people emerged from their hibernation in
DROVES and everyone in the city headed toward the Hudson riverfront to bike,
jog, walk…and whatever. There’s always a
whatever. And the Citibikes were out in
full force. I hate Citibikes.
I’m going to take a moment away from my timeline to write about
Citibikes. Citibikes are rental bikes
that are stationed throughout New York City.
The program is partially sponsored by Citibank, hence the “citi” in
Citibike. The system allows riders to
rent a bike at any station and return it to any station. I’m not sure what they cost (because I would
go nowhere near one) but to me, Citibikes are a symbol of the downfall of
civilization. What a great idea,
though. In theory, city folk will make
use of these reasonably priced and widely available bikes, freeing up traffic
and being all environmentally friendly and stuff. THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS. If you’ve ever been in New York, you know
that cyclists are CRAZY and the good ones are very good at getting where they
need to go with minimal injury or traffic disruption. I did once get swiped by one in Times Square on
my way to work in 1994, but a dry cleaning bill for my new Burberry trench was
really the only casualty. Citibikes,
however? These are novice cyclists. They do not know the rules of the road and
bike riding etiquette. Like, DON’T CROSS
IN FRONT OF ME IN HEAVY TRAFFIC WHEN I HAVE A GREEN LIGHT. Ok, enough.
2:00pm WAZE
starts telling me it will take even more time.
I have about 40 blocks to go, which is about 2 miles. Traffic is crawling, and there is some
low-level gridlock. Pedestrians are not clearing
the crosswalks in time which means cars aren’t all getting through the
intersections…and it’s just par for the course for a sunny Saturday in April in New York City.
2:15pm I’m
still a few blocks away and realizing there will be no good parking. I took my minivan thinking I could get street
parking – and that was a dumb move, because now I will have to park in a garage
and some garages charge more for “oversized” vehicles. (As if driving a minivan isn’t enough of a
punishment, they need to impose a financial penalty.) I also get a message that my friend (shout
out!!!) is at a playground nearby with her kids and if I’m done quickly at the
go-see we might be able to hang out.
2:25pm Still
circling. I have come to the
realization that I need to park…in a garage…in which…I once had a heated
argument with a very mean parking attendant…(now you know about 2 of my heated
arguments; seriously, they are VERY infrequent). I had planned on boycotting this garage
forever, but at this point, I just need to PARK. The scary attendant was not working, but I am informed they will charge me extra. I just need to run at this point. I make my daughter remove the Dalmatians in
the car, but I let the cat shirt stay on.
I’m choosing my battles.
2:35pm I’m
rushing along Eleventh Avenue to a place where I can get across the West Side
Highway onto the Chelsea Piers sidewalk. I see my
friend’s kids climbing in the playground and I want to stop…but I’m rushing…(So
much for WAZE giving me all sorts of good info about arrival time…parking and
walking is taking forever!)
2:40pm We
arrive a little late. The go-see looks
pretty chill…two or three kids waiting.
I sign in at the table and fill out a paper with my daughter’s name and
agency. A woman takes her over to some
measuring tapes on the wall, and measures my daughter at 109 cm. Without any waiting, the photographer brings
her over to the cyclorama (a part of the studio that is rounded where the wall
meets the floor so there is no “crease” in photographs). She snaps a few pics, cajoles a couple of
different looks (serious, smile, etc.) from my daughter, and we are done in
about 5 minutes.
2:45pm We
run into some friends (shout out!!!)…well, my friend’s mother, who has my friend’s
almost-five year old son with her. We
wait for them to finish, and then we decide to walk to the park. These pick-up play dates are one of the most
fun things about go-sees on weekends.
People usually have a few extra minutes to relax and hang out.
2:55pm We
arrive at the park, which has a great playground and features water sprinklers
during hot weather. It’s hot, 80 degrees!!!,
but not water-at-the-park hot. Unfortunately,
my other friend had to leave before we got there to get her family packed for
vacation. The kids play, the sun is
fabulous, and I talk about kindergarten learning strategies with my friend’s mom,
who is a recently-retired kindergarten teacher.
3:50pm My
daughter informs me that she is tired and wants to go home. Well, ok, then! It’s been a long enough day.
3:55pm We’re
back in the car, heading out of the city.
I ignore WAZE’s directive to head up Tenth Avenue, preferring to just
stay on the West Side Highway. WAZE
tells me I will spend 7 more minutes in traffic, but I can handle that. And, of course, WAZE was right…traffic
crawled until about 79th Street…and then it was pretty smooth
sailing.
6:05pm We
arrived home, loved up the dog (we hadn’t seen her for a week), and chilled
out.
Now we wait! The
shoots are in May, so it will probably be a while before holds and bookings go
out. Set it and forget it! Thanks for joining me on our go-see!
What did I leave out?
Any questions? Add a comment
here, on my facebook page The Bizzy Mama, or send me an email at thebizzymama@gmail.com …I’m also on Instagram
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