Summer in Seattle: Sheila's First Marathon!

My friend Sheila ran her first marathon last Saturday. It was really emotional to say the least. She trained with a group called Team in Training. They raise money for blood cancers and they have members all across the country. Out of the 27,000 people running the marathon, 21,000 ran a half and only 6,000 ran the full and out of those, around 4500 actually finished the whole marathon.

The day of the marathon the weather was perfect! Cool, but not rainy. Stefani and I met her at the half way point. I wasn't sure what to expect. We saw a lot of people going by that looked like they were in a lot of pain. We waited with our signs of encouragement and camera ready! Suddenly we saw her! She looked great

She started sprinting up the hill and said she was doing good.

Her friend Jeff came in the night before from Los Angeles to surprise her at the finish line. He hid behind a tree so as not to ruin the surpise!. He looks more like a deviant here, but trust me, he's a good guy!

We left and had lunch down by the water and watched the ferry to and from Bainbridge Island. All we kept trying figure out what was where Sheila was. We got an update that she had finished a 30k. How far is that?

After a little while we made our way up to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, and waited for her to come across the finish line. I knew it would be a complete tear fest when she us! We watched every walk of life cross that finish line. It really put a new face on the person who runs a marathon. Young and old, slim and heavy. One man was 80 and this was his 400th marathon. That's amazing! Is that really possible? Someone do the math for me.

So at 7 hours, 1 minute and 29 seconds Sheila came running across the finish line and then she saw Jeff and just lost it. I asked her later what she thought when she saw Jeff and she said "I thought maybe I didn't make it and I was having an halucination and that I was actually in the back of an ambulance!"



All that work and training really paid off. I'm so proud of her. She helped raise $650,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. What an inspiration!

Michelle Obama and the girl's visit

I decided to start a Blog because, honestly my memory has never been stellar and I really want to have something that my great nieces and nephews can look at later and be impressed by their Aunt Alyson. Right now, they don't care that the First Lady or the Chancellor of Germany came to visit the Foley Stage, but maybe when they have to do a report in High School about President Obama and his family, this could help them get a better grade (wink wink!).

So my first Blog is about a visit to the Foley Stage from Michelle Obama, her daughters, Malia and Sasha, her mother Mariann and her best friend Kaye and of course, no visit would be complete with the Secret Service!

We got wind of the visit on June 9. My friend Stacey called and said that she was coming over with the Secret Service after lunch to check out the stage. Every time someone questioned her about who was coming she would reply "See you at 1pm", hmm. We were so curious. My boss thought it was the Prime Minister of Canada. Okay. That might be fun! At 1pm a small group of official looking security people came in. We showed them the stage and where all the exits were. In their conversation we heard "There will be two girls ages 12 and 9, their mother, grandmother and god mother." You know that rush of adrenalin that you get when you've just realized that something exciting was going to happen? Times that by 10. The only 12 and 9 year old that could possible require so much security had to be the First Family. So now we knew what we were dealing with. I showed them some fun things around the stage and where we keep our hand props, which are labeled in boxes, alphabetically on a shelves. Balls, Boxes, Dog Tags, Gun Stuff and Grenades. I saw the look of horror on their faces. "I'll remove that box before they come." Everyday we got more visits from security. On Friday they asked for our Social Security numbers so they could run a background check on us. (I'm so glad I paid that ticket back in the 1980) We were told that the motorcade would be arriving at Warner Bros. at 2:30. They would be coming straight to the Foley Stage and spend about 20 min. then off to the museum and then a golf cart tour of the back lot. Our stage would be the only one they would be visiting. This visit was an "unofficial" visit, which meant there would no press or photographers. Basically, there were on vacation, so it was more of a casual visit. John and I cleaned up the stage, as best we could, and started our run through about what we would do. We picked "Cats and Dogs 2" to show them how we did the dog footsteps and collars and just some regular feet and props. We thought the girls would get a kick out of that. John went out and bought gloves and I put paperclips on one set, for the dog, and just tape on the other, for the cat. We were hoping to give them to girls as a souvenir, but since it is considered a "gift" we could not offer them up. The stage was set!

By Tuesday I was busting at the seams! We were not allowed to tell anybody they were coming because of security reasons, so we just referred to it as the "V.I.P." visit. At 2pm the first of the Secret Service showed up. I have to say, the Secret Service is definitely for the young! These guys were in their twenties and dressed very casual. Except for the ear piece (and the fact that would take a bullet for the First Family) I could have sworn they were Sound Editors. We got our Foley props out, put up the show, went to the bathroom and waited. At 2:30 we could the faint sound of sirens approaching and then we got a phone call "they're here". So there we stood, my Foley partner John, mixer Mary Jo and my boss Kim, in the middle of the Foley Stage, waiting. I think I could hear all of hearts pounding with excitement! Suddenly they came streaming into the Foley stage. We all reached out to shake each others hands and introduce ourselves. "Hi, I'm Malia!" , "I'm Sasha!", "I'm Michelle", "I'm Mariann, Michelle's mother" and "I'm Kaye". I don't how we did it, but we all managed to get in a hand shake and a name! Then Kim said a few words about the stage and he and Mary Jo went into the mixing booth. John and I were on! John said a few words about what Foley is and then we went right into a demonstration. John did some footsteps for a man walking down some steps to a mailbox, he nailed it on the first take! For the next cue I did his long lost dog running up and John did the dog collar. Then together we did him picking a newspaper, opening and closing a mailbox and getting out the mail. Then we played it all back. If you've never seen Foley and don't know what it's about, it is very impressive. We do all the little (and big) things that you don't really think about, but expect to be in the movie. Applause by all! I showed the girls some props we used for "Princess and the Frog" and then it was their turn. John suggested that they all try their hands at Foley. The scene was simple, a dog and a cat run into a room, followed by a pigeon. "Who wants to be a dog?" I asked. Malia said she would. So I set her up in front of mic, kneeling on a rug on the floor. Sasha was near by. "You two have a dog, right? And you know what he sounds like when he's walking around the house?" Sasha chimed in "He's loud!" I just wanted to give Malia some motivation! She did the cue and did great! Next up was Sasha. John coached her on being a cat. And she too did terrific! John turned to Michelle and said "Well, I guess we can go home now!" Then John said "Michelle, would you like to do the dog collar?" the First Lady replied "Sure!" She then proceeded to take off her bracelets so that they wouldn't jangle during the cue (how did she know to do that?) and before I could raise the mic so she didn't have to get on the floor, down she went, kneeling in that beautiful dress! She did the cue and then when the dog stopped , she grabbed the tags so they would stop jingling too. Again, how did she know to do that? "Apparently, we have a Foley Dynasty" said John. Then Mariann did the cat bell tinkle. I made sure to raise the mic so she didn't have to get down on the floor! Kaye was next with the bird flaps and she was not shy at all! It sounded like an Eagle! After all was said and done, we played it back. Magic! At some point Michelle and Sasha sat on the couch and we all started talking. John had told them that there only about 150 people in the world who do this and Michelle replied, "So you'll have a job for life" I said from your mouth to Kim's ears and Mary Jo turned to Kim and said "Did you hear what the First Lady just said? She said we would have a job for life." Then she asked me how I got into Foley? I told her that my dad was an actor and that he was on a show called "Green Acres". Michelle said "Which one was he? We loved that show! We watched it all the time!" and then she started singing the theme. Okay, I have to say, that was my special moment. My father continues to be a part of my life even thought he's been gone for 13 years. Her mother said "We did! We watched it ALL the time!" My boss Kim told us later that he was standing in the back and was so proud of all of us, but when she started singing the theme, it just put him over the edge!

It was finally time for them to leave. We all said our goodbyes and shook hands. They were on the stage for a good 30 minutes. Although we didn't get to meet the President, I knew that he was going to hear all about us through his daughter's eyes. It was such a wonderful experience. I didn't think I could work the rest of the afternoon because I was still floating on air and we all know what those footsteps would sound like.

Another special note about the day for me was that it was almost a year to the day that my mother Carolyn had passed away. She of anyone, would have been so proud of me, It was so nice to have such an uplifting event happen so close to that date it really helped me get through that difficult day. Plus, it was so meaningful to me that I not only met Michelle Obama, but also her mother and daughters. I'll never forget it!