Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Back to Normal

Sarah will leave this afternoon to join Ned and the other Rooney guys on the road. Molly and her three little ones will drive to Little Rock with her and Robert will get to go to the event with SaySay. Ned will probably let him hang out backstage if he wants to. It's nice to have connections! I'm sure the band bus will be a bit different when Sarah and the gang descend on it. All those mop topped blonds definitely bring a bit of color to the group.

Walker didn't realize that Sarah would be gone by the time he gets home from work. I'm afraid he'll miss her just as much as the rest of us. When she's home he hangs around the family much more than usual, even if it's just on the fringes of the main group. I've noticed that he has been more apt to wear his cool clothes, mainly the Rooney shirt, when she's around. She brought him a jacket given to her by the producers of a movie she had a small part in this summer. It was a bit too tight on Walker, and he didn't recognize the title (Seven Pounds) but he was more excited about it when she explained that it was a Will Smith movie. Walker is a trove of movie trivia, and can cite obscure factoids about directors and producers and other cast members of an unbelievable number of movies. He rolled off Will Smith's resume in a hurry.

Last Fall, we took Walker with us to LA and we got to visit the set of Brothers and Sisters. It was on the Disney lot (very cool in Walkerland) but once inside it was a rather businesslike building until we got to the set. Walker didn't like it that he wasn't allowed to roam freely and had to be quiet, and got a bit annoyed with me. Sarah was preparing for an interview, and he opted to go with her to get her hair and makeup done rather than staying with us to watch a scene with Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig and Emily Van Camp. We were engrossed in watching the many takes of the same scene when someone came to get us. My heart kind of sank when the guy mentioned with a smile that Sarah was almost ready, and a little birdie had told him that Walker was in the hall talking to Chevy Chase and Rob Lowe. Knowing that she was in the stylist's chair, and Walker was wandering around made me exceptionally anxious until the elevator door opened, and there he was with his new friends, Chevy and Rob, telling them all about every movie they had ever done.

I knew that Rob Lowe had done some work for Best Buddies, and suspected he would be kind, but to me he was definitely one of those unapproachable mega stars. Big Walker and I had been deliberately trying to be invisible while at the studio, knowing that just being allowed to be on set was a real priviledge, and one we didn't want to abuse. Walker had no such inhibitions. These were his buddies from Modern Problems and Vacation. The next day Rob Lowe told Sarah that her brother just blew him away. We don't have a picture of that event, because we were too shy to ask, but getting off the elevator to that scene is forever emblazoned in my memory.

Sarah probably won't be home again for a while. She goes back to work on Brothers and Sisters the first of August and will be reconnecting with Ned after his long tour until then. Having her here is like all those songs about having sunshine in your life. We'll all miss her terribly, but we'll go back to eating dinner in our regular spots and doing the things normal people do while she lives on the bus with the band for a couple of weeks.

I hope Sarah knows how much our visits mean to all of us, and that her thoughtfulness of her siblings and nephews and niece and her dad and me are treasured. I hope each of you has some sunshine in your life from time to time just like we do.

Blessings,
Janie

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Janie - we met your 2 daughters and their nephew at the concert at Juanita's (Little Rock) last night, and can report that everyone is doing well; you have a lovely family.

btw, tell Sarah to forget about the setlist, we developed our own - I should have known better than to ask a star for help. (jk, she was very nice).
Check out the review at our music website: http://www.littlerocklivemusic.net

Finally, good luck to your Tigers or War Eagles or whatever your current mascot is -- except when they play the Razorbacks, that is.
Take care,
- C

Anonymous said...

Hey, Janie!
Just saw Sarah Jane on L&O:CI. She was great! Big part! Hope she gets lots of interesting stuff to do on B&S.

Loved the story about Rob. And more about my guy, Clifford: he's about to be 12! (Parenthood is a special kind of time travel: 5 minutes can seem unending. Then they end, and the baby has morphed into a young man.)

Clifford's first language is music, and he's always singing and playing with sounds. Hi loves to improvise and compose, and he has perfect pitch. Like any gift, his has its price: he's very sensitive to noise, and easily gets overwhelmed. And these days, he gets silly when that happens. We're working on that.

Anonymous said...

Colleen, Thanks for watching Sarah on L&O. We almost missed it because it wasn't scheduled to run until the 20th.
I love that Clifford has musical ability. Isn't it wonderful when our special children have talents and interests that transcend their disabilities. I think those interests need to be nurtured and appreciated, don't you?

Anonymous said...

Janie, ITA about the special gifts. Clifford's also a great runner.