Being a PA is not a healthy lifestyle. Eighteen hour days on your feet, standing around in tedium, with short but intense bursts of stress. I ate an enormous amount of food, mostly due to awe. The crafty truck had more than enough to keep me happy; ham and cheese croissants, yogurt, fruit, coffee/espresso, chips, granola, energy drinks, bagels, muffins, chips, candy, and an actual entree every few hours. But on top of that there are three amazingly catered meals. It was easy to get out of control, which I did.

In this all consuming cycle of monotony, eating, and stress, I became addicted to three things.

First: 5 Hour Energy. This is steroids. Tastes fine and goes down in a gulp. Twenty minutes later, you’re high on life. You’ve got energy, you feel great, you’re in a good mood, you’re social and enthusiastic. It was like the drug in Limitless. I ended up taking two or three a day to make it through long shoots.

Next up: Coffeemate. French Vanilla or Hazelnut. When you sit down with a cup of coffee, you carefully add cream and sugar at just the right ratio. On the run between camera takes, you don’t have time for all that. You run to crafty to grab some coffee, and it so rarely comes in cups. More often than not it comes in gulps, sips, splashes, shots, snorts. You pour an inch of coffee, throw some Coffeemate in it, and knock it back in one try. And you’re off and running back to your lock up.

Lastly: Massaman. No real production assistant story here. I just love it. There was a Thai restaurant near my apartment, and I got it maybe three times a week. It’s steak and potatoes with peanuts in peanut butter curry. Pour it over white rice and die. It’s that good.