"Like Ships in the Night" - Dating in the Industry
At 3:00 this morning, I finally parked my car in the garage and took the elevator upstairs to search for the grilled chicken salad "dinner" my boyfriend had been picked up for me around 8 P.M. My dog Layla ran out to greet me when I finally sat down to eat - excited but a little confused beause she just woke up from an early bedtime with her Dad. A few minutes later, he joined the party, cereal bowl in hand.
This is what a typical awards show experience is like for us - up at the same time, but for completely different reasons. He eats breakfast at the break of dawn, on his way in to work for a 4 A.M. call time, while I eat dinner and head to bed after a night of after-partying. I'm lucky!
It's REALLY hard dating when you have the unpredictable hours of a field producer. It's one of the biggest downsides of the job for many of my single friends/colleagues. When you meet someone new, it's pretty difficult to schedule a date because you don't know what your assignments will be from day to day. All of your plans for drinks and dinners or brunches and birthday parties are made completely on the fly. Your friends hear a lot of "I'll definitely be there!....as long as I'm not working that day" or "I'll try to let my bosses know that I can't work that day", only to later hear that there are no other options and you are working that red carpet for sure. Many partners and friends just can't handle it, even though they thought they could. The unpredictability can completly sabotage relationships with even the coolest of partners, who just get tired of watching you check your cell phone 25 times a night (If you're wondering, yes - my boyfriend has confiscated my cell phone before. And yes, I deserved it. And double yes, I thanked him for it.)
That's why I'm lucky to date someone that works in the business. He understands my schedule and the stresses. Even more imporant, he understands the fact that oftentimes I don't have the option of saying no or not replying or letting someone else handle it. While I'm not saying that people can't make it work with one person in the Enterainment News world and one in another industry, but it surely helps. My man never questions when I end up being pulled onto a story the moment I was supposed to walk out the door or when a shoot report takes 3x as long as I expected because I can't remember what anyone on the red carpet actually told me and now I have to go back and listen to the recording. He also thinks it's cool when I interview celebrities, but understands why I'm not always all THAT excited about it -
[Examples: it's still work (and it's working on a weekend or your 13th day in a row); the celebs are sometimes mean or grumpy; their publicists yell at us; we wait around for hours in hopes that they'll speak to us and then they snub us for an interview at 1 A.M...you know, the glamorous stuff!]
Bottom line - he's very understanding and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that (1) he's amazing and (2) he has to go into the office and edit the footage that I just got ingested two hours before!
Passing like ships in the night a few times a year works for us. And it makes for a pretty fun story!
Plus our dog's internal clock is completely ruined! Poor girl. But dogs like to nap whenever right??
