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It was bound to happen sooner or later. Some predicted it'd happen around Day 6. Others thought we could make it to Day 14. But nay, it was Day 11 and we all lost our minds.

How did it happen? Have we been shooting too many weekends in a row? Was it because we had our old pal Tony back on set? Was it all those rave drugs we took? Nobody knows--perhaps it was all of those things. But by 2 or 3 AM (whenever we left) we were all sufficiently giddy with either a great night's shoot or a bizarre evening behind us.

I don't even know where to begin with this Blog. It really was probably our most fun night so far. I wish Tony were in the picture above, because he was just as much a part of Crazy Day 11 as me, Stacey, Lou, Mark, Jim, Maura, and Rajah.

The night started with Tony as Paul feverishly pumping his fists into a large stuffed Santa, whose head dangled from a table and his jolly red body jiggled in many unnerving and unnatural ways. And that was probably the most normal part of the evening. It was a HILARIOUS scene and I gotta give huge props to Tony & Stacey's performances, the combined set design of Rajah, Lou, & Maura; Mark's huge assistance in getting the details right for the scene, and me who kept my head when somebody snapped and broke our expensive boompole. All I can say is that night God gave me strength to accept the things I couldn't change, to change the things I couldn't accept, and to have Lou fix everything else.

[Writer's note: at the end of the night I told everybody how great they were and that I would dedicate a paragraph to each; as long as they told me what they wanted it to say. I don't remember most, but here are a few]

Rajah: Rajah had an amazing night of wonderfully creative shots and one of the highlights for him was when he got to use his steering wheel camera and "drive" around following Mitch down the stairs. It really was an excellent shot, as was his terrific "Dutch shot from the bathtub," "creepy shot from under the stairs" and "shot of Santa's tushy." If Rajah had extra room in his paragraph he would probably mention the color green a thousand times and then try to relight the paragraph and zoom in on it...but he has no extra room and so his paragraph ends here.

Tony: Plot-wise, it was a very big night for Tony, and he was so funny in the decorations scene, and great in the tooth whitening scene with Stacey--except when he kept laughing at her--and in his heaving bathroom scene. And those buttons were killing him! Too many buttons. Jim did another bang-up job applying make-up (he's 2 for 2 now) to Tony.  Tony didn't have much notice that we were doing these scenes and he made it look effortless all night.

Stacey: Stacey didn't want a paragraph, but she wanted to mention band camp. She also wanted me to say "oh that Stacey's so wonderful and beautiful." Which I agree with, but man oh man this girl has an unshakably high opinion of herself!

Jim: Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim, Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim.

Lou: Lou did a lot that night, but as usual who can remember them? I believe he hit his 3 idea minimum/maximum , and he didn't snore through any scenes, so it was a big, big night for Lou.

Maura: Maura believed she did nothing but I think it's because we all worked very hard, very quickly, on the same creative pages, and had fun while we were doing it. So it felt light nothing

Mark:

Chris: What more can I say? I'd say we had too much fun (OK, I actually did say it repeatedly), but how can it be too much if you also did as good a job as we did? Let me just remind you though that the night found: us putting Santa in a compromising position, us putting Stacey & Tony in the bathroom to smile and laugh maniacally at each other, Rajah & me squatting in the bathtub with a smurf-faced Tony lying on the floor and Jim playing with Tony's shirt buttons, Rajah driving his invisible camera car around the house, and then all of us gathering around the fireplace and taking pictures of our heads in pinwheel formation.

Day 11, you are one crazy, crazy dame.  Like somewhere between Judi Dench and Edna.