Dear B&S Fans,
I was pretty nervous when I first started as the writers’ intern on Brothers & Sisters. I knew what the work was, mostly coffee and lunch orders, but who were these writers I’d be working with? Were they over-stressed, over-worked Hollywood types with pretentious coffee orders that I’d never be able to get right? Would hot coffee and other objects be thrown at me? I was wrong on all counts…well…except for when Dan and I got in one of our brutally frank exchanges that just boiled over…
Kidding. Anyways…
My first day on the job, during the pre-Strike Age, then-writers assistant Beth Schwartz took me around to meet the writers and get the first round of coffee orders. With my pen poised in my trembling hand, we made our first stop at the office of none other than the venerable David Marshall Grant.
He orders a Short Soy No Water Chai Latte. I have no idea what this is.
Mind you, I’m from Seattle, the coffee capital of the USA. I’m working on a Masters Degree. But telling myself I should be able to get this isn’t helping any. Winners make their own luck.
Thankfully, through the weeks and months of wandering the 4th floor hallway, things got to the point where I could just see an office with the light on and know exactly what beverage belonged on the desk inside.
Not to brag, but I think I developed a spidey sense for coffee orders.
Matt could be assured his latte would be waiting for him on his desk when he returned from the early morning production meetings. Dan knew I could deliver his cappuccino on time and throw in an extra espresso shot on Monday mornings. A mint tea would always be there for Liz -- even when she wasn’t around to drink it!
The biggest problem was getting 8-12 coffee orders across the lot. Well, you might say, that’s simple: just get a box and carry it over. Easier said than done.
I’m but a simple intern; I have few possessions on my desk: a pad and pen, a stack of scripts to collate, and my coffee box. And yet, in spite of this paltry estate, I was the person most frequently victimized by thieves!
The jewel of an intern’s crown is his/her coffee box. It is that with which I head to Starbucks and… well, a monkey would know what to do with it. You’d expect them to be easy to come by – and yet some somebody was constantly stealing it! I would replace the box with another, and then, when that disappeared too, with another still.
Finally, Dan had to make a label that read, “If you steal this box i’ma beat you.” From then on, the threat of intern retaliation kept the box resting safely on my desk when not in the heat of transport.
I move on from my Brothers & Sisters internship with 88 trips to Starbucks under my belt. That’s about 700 coffees, teas and short soy whatevers. I pass on my box and staple remover to the next intern. And with head held high, I can assure of the many good things to come on Brothers & Sisters this fall. And of course, great blog posts from the new interns.
That’s it for me.
Blayne Vixie
2007-2008
R.I.P.
