If you’ve ever left a good job after seven years, one in which you’ve grown from a newly minted college grad to nearly thirty, one in which you’ve spent more time with co-workers than with your own family, you might understand the feelings I have right now.

I’m going to take this week to bid adieu to the place I’ve called home since April 2006. While this is more personal than travel-related, I hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane and a look behind the scenes at The Young and the Restless.

I have to begin by sharing really upsetting news. Over the weekend we lost a beloved co-worker, our boom operator Luis Godinez. He worked on Y&R for decades and in many ways he was the heart of our show. He always had a big smile and kind words to share. He made working at Y&R a brighter and more family-oriented experience, both literally and figuratively — his son Chico is one of our long-time camera operators. But Luis was like family to all of us — he opened his home every year for Super Bowl Sunday for a huge viewing party that took weeks to plan. He supported everyone with enthusiasm. He even teamed up with a few other very thoughtful co-wokers to purchase a new camera bag for me for my upcoming trip. I am so lucky to have been graced by his generous spirit these last seven years. It is with a heavy heart and lots of tears that I extend my condolences to Luis’s family, both at home and at Y&R. Luis, we will always love and miss you. We celebrate your life today and always.

In the spirit of celebrating good memories, here’s a look back at special moments behind the scenes at Young & Restless.

This is our reception area. Head shots of our actors line the walls and for April Fools Day 2007 they were swapped out with head shots of the office staff.

Here I am in the Production Associate office… where I’ve spent most of my time at Y&R. We moved offices last year; our new space is on the right.

Let’s move downstairs to the studio…

Here’s the control room at Young & Restless. It looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 1970s, but it underwent a major renovation this past holiday break and now the entire wall of monitors is one big digital screen that can be configured however the director or producers desire.

Here are some Instagram shots from the past few weeks. Myself and the other Production Associates track continuity notes on post-its. When the Associate Director gives the cameramen shots in the morning, sometimes they add funny notes on our post-its.

In the photo below, I stand at that red podium every morning during blocking (when the director rehearses with the actors and shows them where to move during their scenes) and I supply the actors with pencils to take notes. What’s funny about this photo is that I’m offering full-size pencils… but we switched to golf pencils many years ago. About four million people watch our show every day but we only have half-sized writing utensils. We joke about this often.

And on the right is Herbie, one of our stage managers! He’s my morning blocking partner.

Here’s what our camera guys (Kai, Chico, and Johnny) look at all day.

I love celebrating the holidays on our show. We usually tape the Christmas show in mid-November and it’s fun to get into the spirit a few weeks early.

Over the years we’ve had many guest stars on our show. That’s Little Richard below, posing with Judith Chapman (who plays Gloria) and my co-worker Molly — they’re bonding over his “Good Golly Miss Molly” song. And that’s Enrique Iglesias performing at former nightclub Indigo on the right.

Here’s a few other random set shots that I captured over the years. Whenever we tape something out of the ordinary I whip out my camera to document it:  an outdoor shoot in the parking lot (for Sabrina’s art gallery opening, I think), some real horses we brought in for the Newman Stables, a DNA strand cupcake that Jana made years ago, and one of many car crash scenes we’ve shot.

Back in 2007 we shot the Clear Springs storyline which featured a major explosion. We taped it across the lot on the same stage where American Idol shoots for half of the year.

Shots from other miscellaneous car crashes and rainstorms:

This is from Kevin & Jana’s ashram wedding. I remember when we taped this Greg Rikaart (who plays Kevin) didn’t want to look at Emily O’Brien (Jana) until she came down the aisle. It made for a very sweet moment when we taped his reaction to seeing his bride for the first time.

… Then Jana’s brain tumor returned (remember when she killed Carmen Mesta all those years ago?), she turned against Kevin, and ultimately died. But this is a soap opera so maybe we haven’t seen the last of her.

Here’s a shot from Victor & Sabrina’s barn wedding on the left, and Sharon stuck in a barn during a storm on the right (with director Dean Lamont and actress Sharon Case).

Above on the left is a shot taken during our recent 40th anniversary cast photo shoot. On the right is a flash mob we did with American Idol’s Diana DeGarmo, who played Angelina on our show (you can check out the video here… I’m in the back in a bright pink shirt).

Occasionally the show marks milestones by bringing in a food truck for the cast and crew. Below are a few of our favorites — In ‘N Out, Kogi, and Cool Haus.

The other way we mark major milestones is with an on-set cake. I’ve consumed my fair share of decadent dessert over the years through these cakes alone. Some of the photos below honor accomplishments (17 Daytime Emmy nominations), anniversaries (this upcoming March 26th will be the show’s 40th birthday), decades as the #1 rated soap opera (20+ years and counting), and as a farewell to a beloved cast member or producer (like former executive producer Paul Rauch’s good-bye cake).

This was my first-ever cake-cutting in 2006 when the show celebrated 18 years as the #1 daytime drama. That’s my former boss Ed Scott (a current producer on Bold & Beautiful across the hall) giving a speech. These photos were taken on a very old cell phone!

I’ll leave you with a photo I did NOT take — one of my co-workers posted this on Facebook awhile back and I immediately saved it to my computer. Now it’s been so long I can’t remember who took the photo! I love this shot because it shows exactly what our stage looks like behind the scenes — the actors are on-set with their scripts for rehearsal, there’s Kai on camera 1, the boom is behind him, and then hair / make-up / wardrobe sits in the opposite set watching the monitor, ready to jump in at a moment’s notice to fix a stray hair or crooked hemline.

It takes a village to make a soap opera, and I love this photo because it shows the whole village!

Over the next few days I’ll share more memories of award shows, location shoots, and more of our Y&R family behind the scenes. As they say, tune in tomorrow…