I am still keeping busy, filling up every minute of every day with work to be done. But December 17th, the day I go home, still seems forever away. TWO WHOLE MONTHS. That is waaay too long. I want to cuddle with my Josh. :(

I spent this weekend in a bar in Spanish Harlem script supervising a short film shoot. The director seemed slightly unprepared and didn’t know a lot of the things I thought he should have, but the shoot went off surprisingly well. And I got free bagels and coffee all weekend. So all is well.

However, that means I’m behind on my editing. So today I’m going to try and perform a miracle and get all of the portrait series footage that’s sitting on my hard drive done (four shorts total). Tomorrow I’m going to tutor during public school hours since NYU doesn’t have classes, then I’ll spend the afternoon syncing up footage for a student short I’m editing, then spend the evening studying for my Abnormal Psych test Wednesday! (I just realized this morning that the test was this week, and I haven’t actually attended the class in about three weeks… whoops!)

It looks like Ari (the girl who tried to steal my bedroom) might be moving out. I may have overheard her last week on the phone talking about how she broke up with her boyfriend, who lives on this floor, and how she put in a room change request to get away from him. And I may have been able to read through an envelope she received from the housing department that she was assigned a room at Palladium and if she accepts it, she has to move next Sunday. And I may be a little excited about this.

Ari’s not all bad, she’s just messy as fuck. Unless they move someone else in here in her place (which is generally a 50/50 chance around here for some reason), I could potentially have my own bathroom the rest of the year. And won’t have to worry about her catching me crawling over her bed to get to the internet box when she’s not there to try and reset the connection because it goes down every five seconds. And there won’t be any cabinets or drawers left open, because it’s just SO DIFFICULT to close them when you’re done!

She actually hasn’t been here for three full days now. She usually comes in at least to shower, and usually sleeps here. No sign of any of that. I wonder if she’s alright?

2 Comments   -   Link directly to this entry   -  

I finally got in touch with the teacher at the school I’m tutoring at, and will start working this afternoon. She seems really cool and flexible, but I’m still slightly fuming. Apparently she’d had my number for a week and a half, and had received my messages begging her to call me every day during that time, but just never called. So I went into the school Tuesday, told the office I wanted to see her, sat down, and calmly waited. When she showed up, what did she say? “Sorry I never called.” In a completely flat tone. I didn’t feel the sincerity, or even a hint that she had any idea how much of my time and possible earning hours she’d wasted.

But it’s okay. I’ll be making fairly good money for this, and she only teaches writing, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Now I can finally start building my savings account back up! And I shouldn’t have to buy food for at least the next two weeks, as my sister sent me another food care package that should be arriving today. And there is always lots. and lots. of goodies to eat.

Yesterday was interesting as well. For our midterm paper in Child Psychology, we had to sign up to observe an actual evaluation of a child at the NYU Child Study Center. Then, we have to take all our information home and put it into a paper format similar to an actual evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.

Obviously, I cannot give you identifying details about this girl and her family. But OHMYGOD IWISHICOULD. It’s SO amazing! Her dad is pretty big-time, if you know what I mean, and their family apparently has a history of tons of disorders and problems. This particular little girl’s problems were several tics, and possible Tourettes, since she recently developed some vocal tics. At first, I was kind of hoping to get an ADHD kid, because that would’ve been easy to write about. But I’m kind of glad I got this girl, because she was so interesting. I took about five small pages of written notes during the evaluation - words tight together, constant brain flow onto the paper, no white space. And thus far it’s translated into almost six pages of typed, single-spaced writing in a Word document. And I haven’t even made my diagnosis or written the treatment proposal yet.

The only reason I haven’t done these things is because I’m waiting to hear back from our class TA if we’re allowed to use diagnoses that aren’t yet included in the DSM (Google it, you will be much smarter afterward), because the girl qualifies in an extremely perfect way for a still-being-researched disorder called PANDAS (wikipedia it, you’ll be much smarter). I hadn’t heard of it before the evaluator brought it up, but after hearing the five necessary criteria, this girl is ALL OVER that diagnosis.

During this evaluation, with a couple of residents with their M.D.s sitting next to me, I briefly thought I might like to actually go the nine yards and be a child psychologist. But then one of the residents explained to me that she was in her 13th year of training, and not yet a psychologist.

25th grade? No thank you. I’ll stick to being creative and starving.

4 Comments   -   Link directly to this entry   -  

I’m pretty aware that I am generally talking about movies or abstract things like traumatic events that happened years ago, rather than what is actually happening in my life right now. This is because

1) My life, other than the free movies and celebrity-spotting, is pretty boring to me without my family around and

2) By boring I really mean STRESSFUL andIdon’twanttotalkaboutit.

But, I’ve noticed more people reading lately (thank you!), so I thought I’d update you on what I’ve really been up to around here. See, I’m trying to build up a creative portfolio while there are opportunities surrounding me so that when I go home, I’ll have an easier time getting work than just being like, “Hey, I went to NYU, you should trust me to videotape your wedding!”

I posted about the baby blessing I photographed last weekend. I’m also working on several film/video projects. I want to be an editor, so I’m doing this all for free right now to build my reel, which means I’m spending a LOT of my free time working hard for no pay. Which kind of sucks. I’m editing a series of short character portraits for online release for a girl looking to raise funding for a documentary based on them. I’m taking on a music video project for a local band this weekend, and I’ll have to sift through an hour and a half of footage. I’m also editing my own short film I shot last fall. I’m also a set dresser on my friend Ruth’s shoot, I’m the assistant director on my friend Sam’s shoot, and I will also be editing BOTH of these projects after they’re shot.

I feel proud of myself for putting myself out there and getting this work, but I really miss my free time, you know? I really do hope this all pays off in the end. Granted, it should actually be easier to get work in Kentucky either way because people there think the stuff I made in high school is FABULOUS and they’ve never met anyone SO TALENTED (because there are only 30,000 people there as opposed to 8 MILLION). But I still want to have something to show. I don’t want to have to do my creative work on the side, next to a gig as a telemarketer or sales associate. I want to be able to freelance full-time.

But then, last night, I watched Just Like Heaven all the way through for the first time. And it was about this woman (Reese Witherspoon) who just worked and worked and worked and never took time for herself or her relationships. I don’t want to be like that, either. I’m killing myself right now, and yeah, I’m building a reel, but maybe I’m trying to go too fast. I’m going to try and restrain myself from answering anymore Craigs List ads until I finish the music video I’m taking on today, at least.

I just need to find my zen. Peace, calm, creativity, blah blah blah…

6 Comments   -   Link directly to this entry   -  

Dear NYU Public Safety,

I greatly appreciate the fact that you provide free campus transportation for all NYU students. This almost makes up for your $20,000-a-semester tuition, additional lab fees, and outrageous book prices (especially on “sealed” packages that cost $100 over retail because of a special manual or lab book included that we won’t even use and can’t return once we’ve opened the overall package to get our textbooks out). But this year, you’re kind of pissing me off.

This is the first year I’ve had to ride the A bus on a regular basis. I rode the E bus the last two years with no complaints; it was usually a couple minutes late, but the trip was generally quick and I wasn’t ever late for classes. But you guys need to either retrain your A drivers, or donate part of the billions of dollars you supposedly raise each year to helping fix downtown city streets.

The ride is long, and that’s inevitable, living two miles from campus through downtown traffic. But these bus drivers you’ve hired don’t actually know how to operate a vehicle larger than a compact car, maybe a sedan. The way they hit the brakes frequently causes the multitudes of standing people on the bus to go flying forward into each other, or into the people sitting to the sides. I myself have been forced to share my butt with the faces of many surprised seated passengers.

Also, these drivers aren’t good at spotting potholes. Now maybe they’re inevitable; maybe they’re ubiquitous. But then, at the least, the drivers should slow down when going over them. I understand that they’re trying to get us to and from campus as quickly as possible, as that’s part of their job. But I would much rather take a couple minutes extra to get where I’m going to avoid the feeling of the entire bus bouncing so low after hitting a hole that my pelvis vibrates with the vehicle-to-pavement collision - over, and over, and over again.

One last thing: I know it’s technically still summer and all, but could you cut back on the bus air conditioning? I know I’m cold-natured, but I’ve had to start wearing hooded jackets to class because no matter where I sit or stand on the bus, freezing cold air is blowing directly at my face or body. Yes, it’s summer, but it’s not 95 degrees anymore; it’s more like 76 degrees, tops, and for people like me, that’s a comfortable room temperature. So just say no to air, save some gas, and keep me from having to pee halfway to my destination.

Thank you.

No Comments   -   Link directly to this entry   -  

Water is, I believe, the NYU dorm farthest from campus. The bus ride isn’t horrible, though, and the buses actually seem to be on schedule most of the time. It’s just a bummer to think that for each class, I’m spending about an hour and a half extra just to get to and from it (45 minutes each way).

The bus tends to be crowded, though, since pretty much no one in Water Street wants to walk the distance, and there are a lot of students in this building as it’s like the biggest or second biggest dorm NYU has.

Yesterday while on the bus, it was packed, but I was fortunate enough to have gotten a seat. There was a girl standing in front of me, facing me. She was cute, wearing denim short-shorts and a white tank top. She had both of her arms up to hold onto the metal bar, because our bus drivers can be a bit stop-and-go. I couldn’t help but notice how smooth and tan this girl’s legs were, right up to her shorts. I don’t know, I guess since I hate shaving my thighs I’m always fascinated by girls that shave the whole thing.

But then I looked up. I kid you not, this girl’s armpit hair was like HALF AN INCH LONG. That’s several days worth of not shaving. I mean, why would you go to all the trouble of shaving your entire legs, then not shave your armpits when you’re wearing a TANK TOP?

Maybe she woke up late.

No Comments   -   Link directly to this entry   -