Entries this day: GMA

GMA

(transcribed from Book Two of my diary)

3:15PM 18 Aug 92 Tuesday.

I just woke up from a 2 hour nap. Yesterday I woke up at 2AM easily since I had been sleeping, or resting pretty darn well since 6PM the previous day. I got to the Hyatt Regency on time and went to Arboritum 1, which is where Good Morning America (GMA) is set up. I met Alex, who was watching the end of Wayne's World as I came in. He's also the guy for whom I was hired to work. I met him, and I met the incredible copy machine, a technological wonder. It has 20 bins into which it can make the copies, & staple them and return the pile of papers into the same pile. Amazing. It's not slow either.

I met John Barton, the crazy "tacky" guy who weras Hawaiian shirts all the time. I helped John put up posters and signs and tacky decorations. We used tacky gum and tacky tape and made all our stuff look as tacky as possible. We punned together and kept ol' Pete, the engineering guy, hopping. (Pete is pretty fun too.) He helped us by getting red and white cloth and other stuff. We also bugged Julie, the beautiful hotel director of customer service. John and I put a sign up outside on the street on the Whistler's Walk Cafe sign. Ours said

     *

Good Morning
  America

(White star and white lettering on blue background) with red & white cloth hanging down. It was pretty windy, so we clamped the thing down with C clamps. (Before we took the sign down after the show, John took my picture while I stood in front of it.) He and I made ourselves at home, moving plants, chairs & tables, by putting up tacky signs over a huge mirror, (we tackied the whole mirror with the gum stuff (we'd tell people it was grape bubble gum, "here, you want some?") and the sign still wouldn't stay, so we taped the whole thing. We're talking a nice mirror. Big. With a big elaborate wooden frame, and we taped tape all over it, and the wall besides.) We put up a big GMA sign up on the glass in front of the glass elevators. We had to climb over (on) a nice couch and move a plant and climb all in some styrofoam shit, that didn't support much pressure. There was a Vietnamese guy name Chio, to whom John said, "You know what will get that [George Bush for President] sticker off [the escalator]? Lighter fluid." Chio didn't respond at first so John said, "Oh, you don't speak English." Chio does speak English, so he was kinda mad at John, but John's so darn funny that one can't be mad at him too long. So Chio started talking to us as well.

During the show, I stood at the doorway of the truck that was parked on the sidewalk, broadcasting to New York. I didn't do much, but watch and learn. Everyone in there wore headsets and could talk to everyone else inside and outside the hotel. Stuff like timing the show and fixing microphones and placing cameras and lights. Cool cool stuff. Charlie Gibson and local guests were audible via their microphones through speakers in the ceiling of the truck.

After the show, I rode the elevators and flirted with Monica, who showed me a message system (modem) on her notebook computer. Then I left at 1PM, as scheduled, except for the fact that I accidentally left at 1PM New York time, an hour early here. Oh well.

Work at the hospital sucked, since Emilio wasn't there, and the computer fucked up and I was therefore there until 9:30PM. Shit I was tired. I got in bed at 10PM and tossed and turned until 10:30PM. I slept until 2AM and got up for GMA today.

When I got in, Alex was watching Wayne's World again. We chilled until John got there, and I helped him put up signs and such. I said, "Good morning, (name)" to everyone whose name I knew all day. Before the broadcast, I flirted a bit with Audry (she pronounces it "Awdree" in her English accent), Charlie's make up artist. I also flirted some with Julie (of course) and Patti (sp) the stage manager. I helped her do camera shit and I got to be the model for a lot of the shots so that the cameras could get placed properly. Total cool.

During the broadcast, I got to act as a bouncer (politely) and keep people from gawking while visible by the cameras. I would tell them "walk all the way through the set, but do not stop. Sir do not stand on the set. Walk through if you need to but do not stop. etc etc" It was kind of difficult to predict which people would stop, and which wouldn't. If you thought they were going to stop, you tell them "don't stop." They stop and say "what?" So you say "go." And they say "I was" Aaaaaaaagghhh.

It was a very cool job though. Pattie said I did wonderfully, and I'll probably do that the rest of the time. Cool. Patti looks a lot like Tammy's mom, who I also find attractive. I would often just imagine serious ear nibbling and total eargasming Patti. Mmmm. After the broadcast, I talked to Doug, the technical direcotr. (His name is in the credits) He explained a lot of the technical stuff and we got along well. We joked a lot, and I made a funny picture of George Bush wearing the Astrodome as a hat inside a column of one of the calendar of the week. (That made a lot of sense.) Anyway, he liked it, and wants me to find a caption for it. "Make it funny, so everyone will have a reason to wake up at 3AM." So I may work on that. I added Doug to my list of people who will buy me lunch if I get a 4.0 this semester. RIGHT!!!

After the broadcast, the whole crew was going nuts coordinating an interview with Barbara Bush. I was asked to drive, but I couldn't, since Dave was coming over today.

Before Dave came over, I slept for a couple hours, and then wrote all this. Sister Gemma in the pharmacy called and wanted me to come in. "No way," I said. I also said No way can I come in early tomorrow, and I won't come in Thursday, either. Fuck her.

Dave came over and we played on the computer, blockout, Castle of Dreams, etc. We also played DOTS and I showed him my budget program so far. Then we went to Sears, and I bought 2 crescent wrenches and a pair of pliers so that Dave could fix his transmission.

Then we went to Bizmart, so that I could get my binder that Mary special ordered, and so I could flirt with her. She wasn't there, so we just goofed around on the IBM. I made about 5 nested directories amed ROB, and Dave nested 5 DAVE directories in there, and then we did PROMPT and made the prompt just C> so that one can't tell what directory it's in. Then we did DIR C:\, so it looked like it was in the root directory. hilarious. Until we finished and Dave looked behind us and a Bizmart dude was standing there. The Bizmart dude kinda laughed when Dave laughed, and I lied, "I was just showing him what I learned yesterday. We both have cool Macintosh's at home. " NOT. So it ws pretty funny. Then we went to Soundwaves, and I went all the way through the used CD's, but didn't find anything. Oh well.

Then we went home, and fixed Dave's clutch. Then we talked a bit, and I added Dave to my lunch for a 4.0 list and then we cruised home.

22:29 Tues 18 Aug 92 permalink