In A Personal Story Segment

My daughter was able to juggle her work and college class schedule so that we could spend the afternoon together yesterday. We met at a popular mall, had lunch at Claim Jumper (they have the best veggie soup!) and did a few hours of shopping. She got a call from her agent to go on a casting for a print ad with the skin care company Neutrogena. Ever since she turned 18, (she's 20 now) I usually do not accompany her to auditions anymore. So, I thought it would be kinda nostalgic and fun to drive her to the casting place in L.A. like I used to do when she was a minor. By law, a parent or guardian needs to be present when the person auditioning is a minor. I needed to accompany her when she did the Mercury Insurance commercial three years ago.

The casting call was anytime between 2 - 5 p.m. Of course, we didn't give ourselves enough time (to busy shopping!) for her to go back to her apartment, change, re-do her makeup, etc. But honestly, she didn't need to do any of that. She looked perfect in her cute contemporary pink sweater, large gold hoop earrings, gray and black tied scarf, and skinny jeans. I had a mini-makeup "emergency" bag in the car so she used that to touch up her face. They wanted her to have a young, clean, natural look; not the "model" type look. She is a master at applying her own makeup to fit the part!

The freeway traffic had already started to get bad! Using the HOV lane really helped.

When we arrived, I dropped her off at 5:45 p.m. Talk about cutting it close to the deadline! I sat in the car and waited for her. There must have been LOTS of young women auditioning for the booking over the course of the four hour timeframe. While waiting in the car for 30 minutes, I counted at least a dozen coming around the corner with their model books in one hand, and cell phone to the ear in the other; in typical, Hollywood style! heh heh

One young man pulled up next to my car and asked if I knew where the casting agent was located. After chatting briefly, I pointed him in the right direction. He had to park several blocks down. At the time, I was originally parked in the red zone area right near a stop sign. About ten minutes later, a young girl returned to the car behind me and I was able to back up into it and park legally.

My daughter and I both know, and discuss, what a difficult business the acting and modeling industry is. Add on the pressures of her college education, and her part time nanny job, she could easily become highly stressed. The busyness gets to her at times (as it does for us all!), but she is a very grounded young lady and I'm so very proud of her and all that she has been accomplishing!

It was so nice to get a text message of appreciation from her while she was waiting her turn inside. She wrote, "thank you for coming with me mama :-)

Due to what happened on the ride home, she may have regretted saying that! :-(

On the way home, we hit TONS of traffic. I hate driving on the 110 and 405 freeways...especially as it gets dark! They do not have enough break lines to enable cars to enter into the carpool lane!!

I know. Most people (especially the younger generation) would most likely have crossed over the two double yellow lines to get into the carpool lane! I just couldn't bring myself to do it. With my luck, a CHP would have seen it! Anyone out there know the fine for doing that?

She had a date scheduled for 8:00 p.m. that evening. Of course, as I floored it and braked to merge through five lanes of traffic, attempting to get into the far left HOV lane before the white entry line ended, it just so happened to work out that I missed my opportunity to get into it...by about one yard! Argghhh! It was another 2-3 miles before we would have another chance. We ended up wasting about half an hour in the traffic!

To make matters worse, I didn't have my driving glasses (that I wear at night over my contact lenses to cut the glare of lights) and the darker it got, the more difficult it was for me to see clearly while driving. I felt like Mrs. Magoo! (If you are too young to know...Mr. Magoo was an old, nearsighted cartoon character who can't see very well at all and wore thick lensed glasses that didn't seem to help his vision much, anyway!)

When things like this happen, I feel so old.

I should have let her drive! However, she did get to take a little nap while we crawled along in the traffic so maybe it was for the best that I did drive. She needed to change the time to be picked up for her date, but it was only about a half hour difference.

I was a bit crabby, though. Can I blame it on hormones? Can I blame it on those hot flashes I was feeling because I forgot to take my Estroven? I was upset with myself for not having the common sense to take my contacts out and put on my good glasses that were sitting in my purse. See where vanity gets me?? Sheesh!

This phrase from the Mr. Magoo website described me last night: "Mister Magoo, a crotchety, nearsighted, lovable old coot." Just hope I'm still lovable!!

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Speaking of common sense, laws, and contracts, I watched a news segment about Ellen DeGeneres' dilemma with a dog she had adopted. If you haven't heard about it yet, briefly, Ellen adopted this Brussels Griffon terrier mix dog, signed a contract with the volunteer, nonprofit rescue agency, and then ended up giving the dog to her hairdresser's family. Why? Because Ellen's cats didn't get along with the dog.

Apparently, she broke two rules of the contract that she had signed, and the rescue agency took the dog away from the hairdresser's family.

Talk about heartbreak!!

What are your thoughts on this?

I have many, but wanted to say that after hearing about this incident, I would never want to adopt a dog in this way.

I have been "scolded" in the past by friends and relatives who think that our family was not "politically correct" because we should not have purchased our two dogs from pet stores. I always understood their feeling that way. They had good reasons for encouraging people to adopt from the rescue facilities. However, now I see purchasing a dog from a pet store, and owning the dog without any contract stipulations as far better than what this terrible situation has put Ellen and that family through!

P.S. No matter what anyone thinks about this situation what is with the death threats being leveled at the rescue facility people!! What are some of these loonie Americans becoming... a Taliban, terrorist kind of people? Awful!!