Amy Venezia

 

 

 

 

 

I sat, full from eggrolls, fried rice and the Mongolian beef that was doing what Mongolians have been known to do in history lessons- invade, attack and conquer.

 

 

In this instance? My stomach…

 

 

As I waited to pay, I unwrapped my fortune cookie.

 

 

One little sentence…nothing cool like, “Great love is about to walk through your door.” Or, “Keep both eyes peeled for a mass fortune.”

 

 

No… it simply stated, “ Not all situations can be judged from appearance alone.”

 

 

Well, duh! Everyone knows that.

 

 

I ate a bit off the cookie, don’t like them, but was told somewhere that you should eat at least a piece of the cookie when you are given a fortune…so, being the slightly superstitious girl I am, I ate.

 

 

I got in my car and began to drive. And I decided to just open myself, as to why that message could present itself to me at the time.

 

 

 

I am like that. Most people don’t take things as messages- especially something as trivial as a fortune cookie.

 

 

But I do- I let messages come to me from the oddest of sources- or at least I am open to that.

 

 

For some reason my mind drifted to Matthew  McConaughey…

 

 

Not a bad place for it to drift if you get my drift…

 

 

I had been on the set of “Surfer Dude” in LA-

 

 

It was a movie Matthew did a couple years back that completely flopped- in fact, I think it went straight to DVD…

 

 

I was needing extra income, and a friend in publicity got me the gig for the day.

 

 

 

Anyway, the one day I was there- it was being filmed at a gigantic mansion in Malibu- right on the Pacific…stunning view. The home was a little to “Dr. building” feel for my taste.

 

 

 

But it had an amazing pool area- fit for the only kind of parties you will ever find in the elite LA circles.

 

 

It was a small amount of people on set that day. It was an all day shoot.

 

 

 

I sat there thinking, it is cool to be getting paid to spend the day in a mansion in Malibu- Matthew McConaughey less than 3 feet from me at all times…I could care less about “stars”, been around them my whole life and know the deal…but …

 

 

 

Mind you, shirt off for all the scenes… and that little southern drawl…if he were collecting trash on the side of the road I would have to look twice…I’m just sayin’.

 

 

 

He was smaller than I expected…had nice feet for a guy…yeah, I notice these things.

 

 

It was extremely windy that day- and the crew insisted that we all slather ourselves in sunscreen. Good idea being we were outside the whole time.

 

 

In between watching Matthew McConaughey do push ups between takes- I put my sunscreen on. Over and over…

 

 

And every two seconds, was having to push my hair out of my eyes, because of how windy it was.

 

 

And here is where it gets funny…

 

 

I noticed my eyes started burning. My left one in particular. I am blind as a bat and wear contacts, not colored ones. Ones so I can see my hand in front of me.

 

 

I just figured it was my contacts being aggravated by the wind.

 

 

As the day went by, I literally felt like I had shards of glass in my eyes.

 

 

Wasn’t till the end that I realized the SPF from my hands got on my hair the times I was pushing it back, which then smacked me over and over like a whip in my eyes, every time the wind blew.

 

 

They wrapped- and I went inside the mansion to get out of the whipping wind- while I waited for the transportation that would take me back to where our cars were parked.

 

 

 

 As I am sitting there, eyes watering and on fire- I look up to see Matthew walking straight towards me.

 

 

Now… the egotistical part of me automatically begins to think, “ Oh shit- I look like a bomb has blown up in my face- my eyes are swollen and on fire. For the love of Mary, Joseph and the Saints why?:)…”

 

 

And in slow motion, like a scene playing out in a movie. I look up as Matthew is looking straight at me. And I watch his face go from “ Hey!” to “ What the hell is wrong with this chick?”

 

 

He walked passed and the transportation pulled up.

 

 

I got in and a couple minutes passed while waiting to take off.

 

 

And to my amusement- I had a staff member open the door and ask me, “ Are you ok? Did you get upset about something. We notice you are crying. Is it because you aren’t on the list for scenes to come back tomorrow?”

 

 

I laughed out loud. And tried to explain to the woman with the headset on her head what had happened. She kind of looked me  with a “ yeah, yeah, yeah… I don’t have time for this.” And got out.

 

 

So to this day, I have no idea if that whole set thought I was crying like a school girl, or if she relayed the story to them about SPF and the fact that I was ready to claw my eyes out at that moment.

 

 

I went home. Took out my contacts and put a cold compress on my swollen eyes for the remainder of the night.

 

 

So yeah, that is an instance that came to me when thinking about how you can’t judge a situation from appearance alone.

 

 

I started to think- how many times have I judged a person or a situation off of my own limited, little perception? When 99% of the perception might be unknown or  not shown in my line of view?

 

 

On this Friday, can you think of any instances where you have done the same? Or the same has been done to you?

 

 

Then, if you can recall, as I have- can we all give each other a break? And choose to be open to seeing a person or a situation in a new light?

 

 

 

 

Tags: contacts, malibue, mansions, matthew mccaughney, movies, parties, perception, spf, surgfer dude

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