One of the holiday parties I try to make it to every year is the SAG-AFTRA party. I haven’t been able to make it every year, but I do make an effort and know that even if I’m not feeling up for it that I will have a great time. I didn’t think I was slacking on sending in my RSVP for the party, but I guess I did because I was originally on the waitlist. I was a little sad that I might not get into the party, but I knew that it was my mistake for not sending it in the day I got it. But the day before the party, I got another email saying I was officially on the list and that improved my day a lot!
I was starting to deal with nausea on the day of the party, but I knew that I needed to go. I wasn’t planning on staying out too late, but I wanted to see my friends and I was excited about that. I arrived at the union early because I knew we would be lining up to get inside. I was in line standing right by the big tree in the lobby and I took advantage of that. I wasn’t feeling like having pictures taken of me, but I wanted to get some good photos of other people to put on my slate’s social media. I have been trying to work on improving the quality of the photos and I knew this tree was a great photo op.
I first got an amazing picture of my friend Shea (who had holiday decorations in his beard) with our union president, Gabrielle Carteris.
Then I realized that with so many of the union leaders being at the party, it was a great opportunity to get a photo of them for our main Instagram page. I usually am posting in our slate’s Instagram stories instead of the page, but I wanted to work on finding something new to post on our feed. And I think this one came out pretty good.
I only realized after I had posted it on all our social media channels that it looks like there are horns coming out of their heads. But fortunately, they found it funny so I was able to leave the photo up and not have to run around to try to take another one.
Once I was inside the party, I got some food to eat and then found a table to sit at with my friends. We didn’t take up all the seats at the table so we got to meet some members that we didn’t know before. Getting time to meet members and talk about how we are involved in the union is one of the great things about social events like this. There were no politics involved, there wasn’t any arguing, and there weren’t any stressful or tense moments like there can be at other union events. This was all about having fun and enjoying ourselves.
I did get one photo taken with some of my friends while I was there, but I really didn’t think about taking any others of me.
I spent most of my time at the party talking to friends of mine, but I did try to also introduce myself to people I didn’t know. But since I wasn’t feeling my best, I knew that I wouldn’t be making the best first impression.
When I was getting ready to leave, my friends said they were headed over to the photo booth area to take some photos. I figured I could wait a bit longer before leaving and went to take some photos with them. But we didn’t expect that there would be such a huge line and that it would move slowly. I’m sure it felt worse for me because of how I was feeling, but after waiting 30 minutes I realized I wasn’t going to make it much longer. Plus, when I’m really nauseous I break out in a sweat and I didn’t want to take a photo like that.
I decided to head home before getting that photo done and it was a little disappointing. But I knew it was for the best for me and my friends understood I wasn’t feeling great. I haven’t seen how the photo turned out yet (they are supposed to be posted online in the next day or so), but I’m sure it would look amazing and I’ll feel a bit sad that I wasn’t in it. But I also remember how relieved I felt when I got home and could work on feeling a bit better.
I was only at the party for about 2 hours, but I feel like I got a lot done. I was able to hang out with a lot of my friends, I got some amazing photos for social media that I really needed, and I got to feel like I did something social when I would have been laying on my couch otherwise. I think that was a big win for me and I’m glad that not only did I get into the party but that I made the choice to go. And I know that when they announce the party next year, I’m going to RSVP right away!
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