Arriving 5 Boulovard des Pins on the Californie Hill in Cannes for the 2008 Festival

Ah, the joy of carry-on-- no wait after the plane lands and of course, I have my clothes. I made my way to information to get some. I didn't have a phone yet and most of the contact numbers were in my computer.
I saw two men standing near a cab and i asked if the cab was free. After some conversation, we determined that we were neighbors and they offered to take me there. They had to leave me in the driveway since Marta, Addison, Jeremy and Ezra were at the screening of Blindness. I turned on my laptop and opened Skype so I could call Marta. When she arrived to open the gate, this is what I saw.

Preparing the House May 15

It turned out that Ezra was cast as the love interest for David Ducovny's daughter in HBO's Californication. Marta had asked me if I would take responsibility of Jeremy and Addison so she could go to LA with Ezra. Even though I had never met either of the actors and I had seen their audition tapes--Jeremy's character is a sociopath and Addison's character uses bad judgment, I agreed.

The three of us would be together for three days before the rest of our housemates would arrive and we would prepare the house for their arrival. There were gifts and prizes and time off for good behavior. We learned where everything was in the house, Jeremy was in charge of everything electronic, of the pool and its unique alarm system that went off when someone dove into the pool if the code wasn't typed in and it reset if no one swam for 8 minutes. he was the architect of the fridge and the pantry and in charge of garbage disposal. he could elicit help from anyone staying at the house or visiting for one of our dinner parties. Addison was in charge of menu planning, shopping lists, labeling kitchen cabinets, recycling locations etc.

We shopped in the local supermarket with a list so that we could eat as often as possible in the house to cut down on our expenses. Jeremy's rule of thumb when I asked what he ate, he said, I eat what Josh eats. Addison and I bought what we deemed girl food-artichokes, olives, beans, tomatoes-things Jeremy and Josh don't eat and boy food-a few frozen pizzas, hot dogs and salami (turned out to be bright red and was only tasted by one brave soul)

when the owner's son came over to fix the wireless and he asked if we needed a cater for a dinner party of 10, I said, "You're looking at us."

Friday night after we had visited the market and bought fresh spices, dried fruit, veggies, fruit, cheese, nuts, flowers and then went to Monoprix 1Euro90 (like out 99 cents store) we had gift bags for the ladies who would be joining us for the rest of the week and fixings for a sumptuous dinner.

The following morning. Addison and Jeremy were relieved of many of their duties because the press releases began.