So, I answered this ad for a music video editor that this filmmaking duo put out through the campus e-mail. We arranged to meet last night to discuss things. I met them, realized they were definitely not college students (they were both definitely over 40), and then also realized that they weren’t just going to hand me the project - they actually wanted to interview me, which has not happened before. Most people are just happy I’m willing to do it for free. And in the e-mail before the meeting, the woman had even made sure I knew this was really low-budget. I just told her I was used to doing things for free right now, while I build up my reel.

Well, they asked me some questions, which I answered very honestly. I showed them a music video I helped work on in Dublin that I knew was on YouTube, and they showed me a documentary they’re working on, as well as some of the music video footage they’ve already shot (they’re not done yet). After an awkward pause somewhere in the conversation, they looked at each other. The woman said, “What do you think?” and the guy said, “I think she’s amazing,” and they nodded at each other. They told me they’d interviewed someone else but that they were going to go ahead and offer me the video. I was like, that’s cool. Because if they hadn’t, no skin off my back, you know? But then, the woman added a little something. “I know you said you’re used to working for free, but we’d like to offer you two hundred dollars once the video is done.” Well, after I made sure my diaper wasn’t leaking, I was all, “Sure, I’ll take that!” Then I ran away before they could change their minds.

So, that’s basically a free $200. Because I really would’ve done the video for free anyway. So that is NICE.

Especially since I went shopping today. See, I’m going to the Tisch Gala thing Monday night, but I don’t have any “formal” outerwear for the evening. I went to Wal-mart in Long Island and got a cute little black purse and a nice cream-colored scarf and gloves set. But my main goal was to get a warm coat that would be appropriate. All I have right now is My Chemical Romance hoodies and a purple rain jacket, which is certainly not going to impress Rainn Wilson. Well, Wal-mart didn’t have jack. So I walked over to the nearby mall. I literally looked in EVERY. SINGLE. STORE. that carried women’s apparel, and every coat was either 1) so ugly I wouldn’t even wear it one time, 2) too small, because you know, everyone is a size 12 and under, 3) too big, because all the “plus size” women are actually my size and have already bought all the coats that would’ve fit me, so I am left with coats that are so big they fall off my shoulders, or 4), too expensive for something that is going to make me sweat profusely within thirty seconds of putting it on because it is THAT HIGH OF A QUALITY of warm winter coat.

So I still have no jacket. At this rate, it looks like I’ll be showing up in my long floofy skirt, short-sleeved dress top, and lovely cream-colored gloves and scarf. But no actual item of clothing protecting my arms from the projected 34 degrees of Monday night.

However, I did buy Twilight. That’s right, I’m all over this bandwagon. Comparing the craze to that of Harry Potter? I’m interested. Reading the summary of part of the final book, Breaking Dawn? I HAVE to know how it got to that point. I just wish someone hotter was playing the main vampire in the movie. That boy just doesn’t do anything for me.

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Josh and I had some MAJOR emotional breakthroughs last night. He is going to try and be more open with me about his thoughts and feelings, and I am going to try to be more communicative with him. Maybe now I can stop crying so much.

I have been cognitively overwhelmed lately. All I want to do is get all my work done, get ahead of the game, so I have time to relax before my next exams, or to just have time to go window shopping or take some pictures. But it seems like the work has been never-ending - until today. I realized I have read all but ONE chapter for ALL of my classes, and then I just have four excerpts for Child Psychology. And that’s for the ENTIRE semester. So once all this reading is done, all I have to do is go back and review it for the exams. I’ve done this before and it’s incredibly effective for me. I retain information I read very well, I just need a brief refresher before an exam to bring them to the front of my mind again. So I’m pretty excited about that.

I just got picture lock on a color sync I edited. When I start with this new “free time” business I will upload it for you guys to check out (warning: it contains drugs and a blowjob, though not graphically). I also started editing a puppet movie for kids, which is ADORABLE. You are going to love it, because I love editing it.

Sometimes, with my work habits, I can see myself developing certain symptoms of the very mental disorders I am studying. I know the whole “medical student syndrome,” as I’ve mentioned before, but I’m not trying to diagnose myself or anything. It’s just nice to know what symptoms are, to be able to recognize them so that I can change my thoughts or behavior before they DO start to develop into something. So I’m really trying harder to be less structured and more relaxed - hence the not blogging every single day. ;P

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I crewed on another film shoot this weekend. But I have no more planned after this! Nada! And if someone asks me, I’ll say no! Really! Because now I have to edit the last two films I’ve crewed on, color correct the one I’ve been working on, and, um, finish my own by the first of December so I can actually get a grade on it.

The one this weekend was relatively painless, considering it was all outside. We shot in Tribeca (the west part of middle downtown) and Saturday it was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was around 60 degrees and it felt really nice with just a jacket on. Then YESTERDAY, all of a sudden nature decided it was going to get a lot fucking colder, more like 36 degrees and windy as hell. I felt bad for the actors - Kate just had to wear a skimpy dress and I was afraid she would die. I wore an extra jacket but it was still pretty nipply. Fortunately, there was an apartment building with a small visitor lobby that we all kept ducking into when we weren’t needed, to at least get away from the wind. I just kept telling myself I have been in far worse, much colder outdoor shoots… such as Justine’s color sync last year, in the middle of November in Jersey, with it threatening to snow any second and three little girls as the main characters.

I really love the Tribeca area. It’s all about family, albeit rich families. There’s tons of kids running around, which is completely unlike most of the rest of the city. There’s also a Barnes & Noble right next to a Bed Bath & Beyond. :) Also, apparently James Gandolfini (Mr. Tony Soprano) walked his big white dog through our set TWICE Saturday, and I COMPLETELY MISSED HIM. BOTH TIMES. And I was even on the lookout for the second time! This is evidence of how many celebrities I may have passed over the last three and a half years without noticing because I am completely oblivious to the world around me. Also, during our lunch break, I was singing MMMBop along with the iPod speakers we had on set, and apparently Debra Winger walked by and laughed at me. I mean, I saw a woman and heard her laugh as she passed, but one of the actors on set said it was Debra Winger. I didn’t even know she lived in New York, and if she doesn’t, why she would just be strolling down Greenwich Street past student film sets… But isn’t that a great story, if it was her? “Hey, this one time, I made Debra Winger laugh by singing MMMBop on the sidewalk.” Yeah. Really great story. Uh huh…

There was one other thing about this shoot I found unusual. The director was a woman, and there tend to be more female crew members on shoots directed by women. There were a few female crew members including myself, and most of them were pretty attractive. And yet, I found a couple of the guys on the crew talking to me frequently. As in, they preferred talking to me over anyone else on the set. I’m curious about this, as my appearance has not changed in the last year (except gaining back weight) and this is not usual for me. Especially when there are lots of other hot girls on a set. But the production manager just kept talking to me and running errands with me, and the assistant director kept making jokes and asking if he could get me anything. I sort of didn’t tell them I’m getting married. It’s nice to have my self-esteem boosted once in a while. :)

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Good lord, what a week. Midterms, working, assistant directing a film shoot all weekend, catching up on chapters upon chapters of reading yesterday, FINALLY going grocery shopping (but still haven’t washed towels)…

I even got the engagement photos I took for a young couple edited and uploaded to Flickr. I am currently importing photos from the film shoot this weekend to be slightly touched up and also uploaded. I got picture lock on a short film and will hopefully soon be passing it off to a sound mixer… but of course, now I have to start editing Sam’s film (the one we shot this weekend). :)

I cannot remember the last time I had a free day, or even half an hour of free time to myself without any work to do. This is extremely bad. In fact, Josh actually got really mad at me about it this weekend because while on the shoot I was still sick and hadn’t had time to go to the doctor all week. Fortunately, I am now getting better on my own, but Josh is still really worried that I’m overloading myself. His grandfather was recently put in the hospital because of heart problems related to stress, so he’s extra sensitive any time I mention how much work I have and how tired I am. So I’ve promised him I will not take on so much work at one time, and I will practice saying “No” to people.

Since then, Josh has been more pleasant on the phone. Which is fabulous. Because before he explained that he didn’t want me working so much, he was just really grumpy and short with me on the phone, and it only added to my stress because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong or what I had done. Now I get it, and now I’ve reassured him, and everything is back to the way it should be. I love that man so much I would stop eating bread if he told me he thought it was bad for me.

I told Sam on the phone this morning that I wouldn’t start editing until at least next week. So now my goal is to get ahead on my work for the next week or so, so that I actually have an opportunity this weekend to spend some time with myself, or talking to Josh on Skype. I am crewing again this weekend - I promised weeks ago! - but it will only be until around 7 Saturday night, and around 4 Sunday afternoon, and none at all Friday. So those evenings I intend to spend in front of the TV (or computer screen) for once, just enjoying myself. I realize this is still like four days away, but at least I have something to look forward to.

By the way, what the hell is up with my body? Suddenly I’m having another period? Ugh. My depo shot is Monday. Maybe after this one there will be absolutely no more surprises.

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Yesterday was just ridiculous. Fun, but ridiculous.

First, in the morning I had two demands requests from fellow student filmmakers: the first, that I upload photos I took at a shoot the weekend before last to Facebook. So I resized and obliged. Then the director of the shoot I’m assistant director on this weekend - my good ol’ buddy Sam *cough* - needed me to make a shooting schedule. So I did that.

Then I had class, after which I “tutored” for two and a half hours, then ran back to my dorm to eat something, then caught the subway up to Central Park for a photo shoot of an engaged couple. THAT was fun. I don’t really mean that sarcastically. It was a bit rushed since we didn’t have a lot of time to begin with, and then they were about 15 minutes late. But they were real troopers - they were into all kinds of ideas, and came up with their own of climbing into a tree (which nearly ended in disaster, as the girl was then terrified of coming down). She even broke her lovely black belt. It was my first shoot like this, but I definitely think I’d like to do more - some of the pictures looked really great in my LCD review.

After that, I hopped the subway back to campus, just in time for my first Chemistry exam. There were six questions, with a few sub-questions in each. I was rolling through, like Yeah, I am so smart, taking Chemistry after I took AP Chem in high school, this is a piece of cake, and then I hit the next to last question. Spent about five minutes on it, couldn’t get it yet. So I finished the last question, which took all of 30 seconds. I ended up spending the rest of the exam time on that next to last problem. We’re talking, that movie moment where I’m sweating bullets and I keep staring at the clock and I can practically hear the second hand ticking as the professor calls out “three minutes left.” I actually got the answer by my awesome powers of deduction with a calculator way before that, but the fact that I couldn’t do the math right was bugging me, and I wanted to figure it out. I mean, it seemed so EASY. Then, literally on the last minute, I realized the wording of the question had thrown me off (it was percentages, and he had said to use x and 100-x as the variables, when for my problem it should’ve been x and 1-x). I was like, OHMYGOD. So I scribbled all the steps to the answer very quickly. And I am quite confident I aced this one.

Then I came back to my dorm and waited for Josh to call. He did, and the conversation was going quite well (aside from my persistent loud coughing - thank you, sickness), until I decided to bring up the fact that I didn’t want guns in our house when we had kids. Good lord, people, did this strike a cord. He was all “I have six guns and it’s a hobby I have to shoot them off” and I was all “Statistics show guns in the home are primarily used for suicides and accidental homicides between family members” and it turned into a big argument.

That’s been happening a lot lately. It seems like every phone conversation we have ends with ten minutes of silence after we have a disagreement, then we hang up and I text him apologizing and we text for half an hour about how we both feel. Why can’t we talk about this stuff on the phone? Oh well… it’s better to text it than to not talk about it at all. Fortunately, neither of us are the type that like to drag arguments on for ages and ages. If he was here, we totally would’ve been boning when he got home from work.

And that was my day. How was yours?

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