There are few activities I enjoy less in this world than shopping. I still shudder thinking about the dreadful minutes standing inside the Wet Seal at the Montclair Plaza mall in the early 90’s staring at clothes I could not imagine trying on, let alone walking around my junior high school hallways in. The shorts were too short, the tops were too clingy, and invisible, and the energy spent trying to make them work was exhausting and therapy inducing for both me and my mom. However, I have always been able to apply laser-like focus when searching for important dresses. For example, the dress I found for my Senior year homecoming dance, (which I also doubled later that year for prom), took about twenty-five minutes to find after I crossed the threshold of Macy’s, my wedding dress was the first one I tried on, and the dress I chose to wear to my first Emmy’s ceremony last Saturday night was the first one I grabbed off the rack, too.

I don’t encourage gambling, but I would never underestimate the dress searching super-power of a life-long Tomboy.

Emmy’s dress shopping, 9/3/2018, capturing a photo for Hannah’s approval.

Moreover, it is not just that I don’t enjoy shopping; I simply do not have time for it right now. I am gleefully up to my neck in Kona training, and would love to indulge you with the details, but I fear that load of exhausting information would give you a headache, and you probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. Nevertheless, I will reveal that it has all been awesome, and I cannot wait to find out what unfolds over these next four weeks before I board the plane for the Big Island.

Happy redhead after completing a HUGE day of swim, bike, and run last Thursday.

As I teased earlier, and mentioned in a previous post, my husband Marion was part of the Emmy nominated team for Best Visual Effects in a Television Show for his work on the Netflix series, Lost In Space. They started shooting the second season of Lost In Space on September 4th, but he had to leave on August 6th for all of the pre-production meetings, scouts, etc., that are necessary to kick off principle photography on steady footing. Therefore, after five weeks apart, Marion flew in late Friday night from Iceland to attend the Emmy’s ceremony on Saturday night. It was a heart-wrenching tease having him home for such a brief period of time, he flew back to Canada Monday morning, but it still was an incredible weekend that I will never forget.

When we found out that both Hannah and I could go to the ceremony, I decided to enlist Hannah and her mom, Johanna, to search for a “Glam Squad” to make us both up for the night. I am useless in that regard, (I invest in make-up every other decade), while Johanna has fantastic connections, and she delivered!

From screen left, yours truly, Hannah, and our make-up and hair artist, Lucy.

It took forever to make me look like this.

Thankfully, our girl, Lucy, whipped Hannah up in no time, and we somehow made back to Hannah’s house where Marion was waiting with our driver, (Netflix hooked us up), changed into our respective dresses in seconds flat, and made it to the awards in plenty of time to capture a few vital photos on the red carpet before the show began.

My top goal of the night was grabbing a photo on the red carpet representing Smashfestqueen. Snazzy wristband, right?

Walking among the crowd of gorgeous, fancied-up folks like us was pretty surreal. It was a bit of a madhouse in the lobby of the Microsoft Theater where the awards were taking place, but Hannah met an actress from her favorite show, Riverdale, Marion hob-nobbed with his fellow nominees, while I simply smiled and took it all in. Soon we were shuffled to our seats and sat down for the show.

The show was being taped for a later broadcast that will air this coming Saturday, 9/15, on FXX, so the stage manager had to run the crowd through a few cues about clapping etc, and then the fun began.

Marion and his team had minimal faith that they would win because they were in the same category as the towering goliath, HBO’s Game of Thrones, but I believed they had a chance. Nope. Game Of Thrones won. Then again, Game of Thrones won everything. They should. They are the most expensively produced show on television, sparing no expense for cast, writers, crew, locations, and visual effects, it is almost unfair, but hey, that’s showbiz.

Nevertheless, my heart sunk seeing Marion’s face deflate when he heard the winner announced. He was crushed. I have also never been more proud of another human being than sitting next to him in the same room with such illustrious talent and high-achievers in our industry. He earned his seat, and I am sure he will be back, either on his own, or as my date.:)

There was a Governor’s ball right after the awards, but none of us were really in a partying mood, so we did a lap around the venue, the highlight being a quick conversation I had with the magnificent Molly Shannon, and then called our driver to swoop us up and drive us home.

However, when I saw the nearly deserted red carpet area a million light bulbs went off in my head of how we could capture this amazing moment in our family’s history. Hannah was initially mortified at my antics, but she came around once she saw the finished product.

It was a bummer that Marion didn’t win, but the fact that the Emmy’s gave us a weekend together when we really needed it, was the real win.

Plus, we both are already Emmy winner’s from a project we worked on together in 2004, so anything else at this point is gravy.:)

This week’s song and video choice is a classic from Gwen Stefani. Enjoy.:)