Thursday, July 12, 2007

6:08 7/12/2007

Yesterday was a great day. It won't shock you to know that it was also busy. At about 7:30 I left to take the kids to school. This trip was a bit different. This time I only dropped off two. Yesterday, Sydney would spend the entire day with me. She and I along with several other families were participating in a video shoot for the CNCF. The shoot was at Children's Medical Center of Dallas and we were supposed to spend the better part of two days on this adventure. By the time we arrived the shoot had already began. There was already a crew of about 7 making their ways through the halls at the clinic. The first few shots were mostly laboratory in nature but it was not long before our child stars took the stage. First was Alaina who was demonstrating our favorite pastime (sarcasm), life in the infusion room. She was a great actor and it was not long before she had them eating out of their hands. She was the perfect little lady and quite patient with all of the people scrambling around her. The next few shots were a little less medical but none the less part of our daily lives. Grayson, who was just days out of the ICU and his second of two transplants, was filmed while he played quietly on the couch. Sydney's shot was next and she was filmed doing one of the things that she does best, running into her Daddy's arms. After this, Sydney and I made our way outside to the playground while everyone spent time setting up the next shot. It was not long before we were on our way upstairs and waiting for Dr. Podeszwa. Unfortunately, he was busy with patients and we elected to opt for an early lunch before shooting the next scene.

The afternoon at the hospital would go very quickly. David nailed his complicated lines - "I believe we can bring change." and within minutes we were scurrying off to our next location. The next shot was one of the most surprising that, had we planned it, there would have been no chance to pull it off. However, Elexa just happened to be scheduled for an MIBG scan at that very moment. As she was being anesthetized we squished in another shot of some MRI films and by the time we had that wrapped up it was time for the crew to go back to shoot Alexa. Sydney and I elected to make another visit to the playground where we found Alaina and her mom. Sydney and Alaina had a wonderful time playing together and before we new it, it was time to get back to work.

I really can't tell you how smoothly this shoot went. Here it was half way through day 1 and we had already completed all of our hospital scenes. As a result, we decided to head over to the Podeszwa's to shoot some of our day 2 scenes. There we saw all of the Podeszwa's committed to film. It was quite fun and the kids had a spectacular time. This session went quite quickly as well and by about 5:00 PM we had wrapped up shooting, not only for the day, but in its entirety. It was an incredibly successful shoot and the only thing that I was truly less than successful at was getting Sydney to leave. I honestly don't remember the last time she had so much fun. In the end we decided to stay for dinner and ice cream and then at about 8:00 PM we decided to make our way back home. By then Sydney was asleep. I gently carried her upstairs, put her into her jammies, and kissed her forehead good night.

It was a long and busy day but I wish everyday could be just like that.

I had a perfect day and mix of purpose.

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