Filming a shot from an episode of Royal Pains

     A few weeks ago, I was minding my own business at my place of employment when an unusual call came in.  A guy from a filming company called wanting to know if his film company could use my place of employment as a home base for the day for his company.  More specifically, he was calling to secure a location for them to park their trucks, and feed their staff lunch.  He may have, at that point, mentioned the title of the TV show Royal Pains, but to be honest, I don't watch much episodic
television (much to my husband's chagrin, I'm a reality television girl) and the name just didn't stick.

     Unfortunately, due to reasons unknown to me, the guy had to scout out another location, however, I remembered the date in question, and I resolved to look around town on my lunch hour to see if the filming was taking place nearby in a location I could find.

     Sure enough, I hit the jackpot immediately.


     The street leading down to the marina was blocked off by a village patrol car and guys wearing headsets and looking very important.

     Some poor guy on a bike tried to cross the street, and the guys stopped him (apologetically, I will admit) and told him that he couldn't cross because "we're filming and this street is visible in the background."

     Filming was taking place at a location I had actually posted a picture of just about a month and a half ago (see my post, Lunch Time - it's the restaurant with the American flags hanging from the porch)

     As you can see, I would not survive for long as a paparazzi.  I don't have the kahoonahs to go right up and ask for a photo, or to just walk right up and snap a shot without permission.  Still, there were some people just milling around (although, maybe they were part of the entourage) and still others walking on by like, Who cares? (unless, of course, they were extras).

     Oh, how fun it would have been to have them based in our building for the day - then I would not have had to feel sheepish taking a picture.

... and I might have scored some excellent lunch leftovers, too.

Turn on the lights, Gilly Hicks!

     I took my first trip to Gilly Hicks a mere two weeks or so ago, and my first thought was, This is the most BIZARRE store I have ever been in. 

      According to Wikipedia, Gilly Hicks is owned by Abercrombie and Fitch and was inspired by the phrase "down under" which no doubt is what ties it into the Sydney, Australia location, which is a complete fabrication since it is and always was an American company.  Creators of the brand created the fictional character, Gilly Hicks. whose life is the one on which the store is based.

      For those of you who have never been there, here's a run down:

      Upon entering the store, which I had passed for years without really noticing it because it looks like someone's dark front porch, I saw this:

I got this image online, but the store in my local mall was set up similarly.

Someone turn on the lights!  And... where are the employees?

     Doesn't this look like a beauty counter at a high end department store (except for the fact that SOMEONE FORGOT TO TURN ON THE LIGHTS). Did the counter girl run off for an extended break before someone came in to cover her shift?  Does it make me a person of bad moral character if I immediately noted how very EASY it would probably be to steal things from the counter?  (And you know you're getting old when you discuss this issue with your peers and they comment on issues of personal safety as well.)

     There was no visible register.  No visible employees of any kind.  No signs, and you wouldn't see the doorways to the next room until you were right in front of them.   We walked back to the very front of the store and peeked into a room on the side, where a lone employee was folding bras in a room the size of a large bathroom, at what looked like someone's dining room table.  "Hi, welcome to Gilly Hicks, do you need any help finding anything?" No thanks, just wondering if I fell down the rabbit hole in Alice's Wonderland.

     We walked into an oval shaped adjoining room with a large drawing of a semi-naked man on the wall, at which point, my son seemed to begin having an allergic reaction to his surroundings.

Mom,

Mom,

Mom.

Mom - can we get out of here, please?

     My daughter, however, was on the hunt for a Gilly Hicks sweatshirt and would not be deterred.   In the adjoining room on the other side of the naked-man room, we finally hit pay-dirt.  Sweatshirts.  Nice ones - on sale for twenty dollars. But when she held up the dark one she liked, we couldn't tell if it was navy blue or black.  Seriously... couldn't tell.  We held it under the beam from the halogen light - blue?  Yes, blue... I think.

     My poor son was practically getting itchy at this point.

     MOM!!  Can we GO now?

     I think he was worrying that someone he knew would spot him in there and he'd never live it down.

     Sure, son, we just have to pay for this.


     And then, another first.  I could NOT find the register.

     It was just like this youtube video...

I actually had to ASK someone to give me directions to the register. 

How embarrassing!

     Yesterday, we went back to Gilly Hicks for more sweatshirts and matching sweatpants.  We managed to find the dressing rooms (due, in large part, to the numerous shoppers standing around waiting with clothes draped over their arms).

Check out the interior of this dressing room:

     Creating some ambiance, maybe? or do they actually think we're going to park ourselves in there and read novels?

 ...in our underwear?

...in the dark, no less?

Ocean City, Maryland (Believe it... Or NOT)

We just got back from a somewhat spur of the moment trip to Ocean City, Maryland.  We had been there almost 10 years ago, when the kids were very small, and we had a nice time.

By coincidence, we stayed in the same place we had stayed when we went last time.  The hotel has become a bit run down, but the room overlooked the boardwalk, which was pretty cool.

I spent a fair amount of time looking out the window...  see the mime wearing gold in the lower left of the picture?  He was entertaining.

Another mime.  Or maybe just the same guy after changing outfits and moving to a new spot.


Then there was the sand art...  Some guy created The Last Supper out of sand...

... and he posted signs touting his religious beliefs and asking for donations.

Which I think is lovely, except I was a little disappointed, since we saw this exact same sand art when we were in Ocean City approximately nine years ago.  Can't this guy come up with some new material?  Is his stuff really made of concrete with a light dusting of sand on top?  I would be SO disillusioned to find that out! Come on, sand art guy, I want to see Moses parting the Red Sea in sand, or maybe Jesus walking on water in sand...  I was also wondering about the lights - how does he manage to plug all those extension cords in to light up his artwork?  Does he have a deal worked out with the city?

hummm....

Here's a picture looking down the boardwalk at night.

I would have taken more pictures, except it rained (and I mean POURED) every day except the first.

The sightseeing highlight for us, though, was the giant shark head poking out of the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. 

My son talked about this shark head the WHOLE time we were there last (he was 3 years old then)  and for years afterward.  The shark head and tail move back and forth, giving the shark that 

"I DON'T CARE THAT THERE'S A BUILDING IN THE WAY I'M COMING FOR YOU!!!!" look.  

When you go inside for the museum tour, you can see how the parts work from the inside.  

Oh, and there's a bird nesting in the shark's mouth... BELIEVE IT OR NOT.