Little Things and Looking Forward

Today started out terrifically shitty. I woke up late, people were particularly rude on the train today, I fell and scraped my hand in Penn Station, I put every penny of my Christmas bonus in the mail and sent it off to the US government and I still owe them more, and I got my period. Not even a chocolate Krispy Kreme helped my mood. But then little things did.

• A smile caused by a friend who suggested a 9:30 am shot of tequila for my troubles.
• The fact that, though My Office Nemesis prattled on for about 20 minutes about how she accidentally opened her roommate's phone bill and she was afraid her roommate would be mad, I have the ability to pop in an earphone and tune out that nonsense. 
• The fact that, even though I don't get to spend my Christmas bonus on myself, I do get to be rid of my tax problems. 
• The fact that, even though Kris doesn't understand what it's like for a woman to go through this monthly cycle, he sympathizes, doesn't get frustrated with me or patronize me because of it, and tries to make me laugh. 
• The fact that I am going to see and old friend from college on Thursday and go to dinner at Sarah's on Saturday. Yeah, today sucks and I don't want to be doing what I'm doing and it's probably going to be more of the same all week. But at least I can look forward to a time when I'm happier and having more fun. 
• That I can be happy. I just read a blog post by one of my favorite musicians who has dissociative disorder. It makes me really sad for him, but it also makes me appreciate that in recent weeks and months I have learned how to be happy most of the time and I am. 

Who Would Win In A Fight Between The Hulk, Godzilla, and King Kong?

A lot has happened in the last week. I am practically incapacitated by it.

• Thursday and Friday, the band played shows to audiences including his family and my family. It was really fun and a good time was had by all.
• I completed Round 1 of the NYC Midnight Madness Screenwriting Competition. A lot of people have been confused, thinking this is the thing I do where I have to make a movie. Nope, this is the one where I had to write a script. I spent 5 days on one concept, trying to make it work, before scrapping it entirely and starting over with a new concept on Thursday afternoon. In 4 drafts, between then and Saturday night, I wrote a 15-page mystery that I am pretty proud of and I have to wait 6 weeks to see if it qualifies for the next round. If you wanna read it, holla. Big thanks to my beta readers, Kris and Sarah.
• Saturday was really the main event of the weekend. The band was to play a house party in Brooklyn. They had done one before, to great effect, so this time I decided to come, knowing it would be a late night (I was told they would go on at about 1 am). A carload of Kris's friends came up from South Jersey and met us at the house. We loaded up the kit and drove out to Kris's store to meet more of his friends/employees. While waiting for everybody to show up, we determined that, since this gig was gotten through friends of friends, we didn't actually know anyone at the party. One of our friends got to the party ahead of us and we imagined what it would be like if someone questioned her right to be there:

"Who are you?" 

"I'm Kat."

"Kat who?"

"I'm Sean's sister."

"Who's Sean?"

"Kris's friend."

"Who's Kris?"

"The drummer for the band."

"What band?!"

Any. Way. We finally got all our crew together and took off. I rode with the car who had neither directions nor a GPS and we almost lost our lead car. We made it there OK and loaded in the gear. The opening  "band" (a guy in zombie makeup and a cowboy hat with a guitar, a tambourine, and an ipod backing him up) was...well we decided to explore the neighborhood. We came upon a place called Barcade, which had old-school arcade games and alcohol, the perfect place for Kris and I :) Having located the money-dispensing game (all you have to do is put in your card and your secret code :) I got a couple drinks and started to feel much more comfortable. We hung out all over the party, watched some of the other bands, danced, chatted. Eventually we felt comfortable enough to take advantage of the house bar. It had been a long time since I had that much cheap-vodka-and-OJ-in-a-big-plastic-cup, but it helped. At some point we learned that one of Kris's friends kissed one of Kris's employees and it was the employee's first kiss. He celebrated by raiding the party's fridge and coming away with the prize of a jar of jelly. Argyle Johansen played a set and then Schocholautte went on, almost 3 hours after their proposed 1 am start time, and played for an hour. Rarely have I had such a time. Everyone was dancing (instead of me being the lone idiot at the front of an otherwise empty dance floor) clapping, singing, sweating, having a wonderful time. The band left every ounce of anything they had on the stage and I left it on the dance floor as well. We loaded the equipment and the people back up and headed for home, making it to bed, after a quick stop at the bagel store, at 7 am. 

Three. Hours. Later. Kris's phone rings with my favorite type of call, the "Hi, It's The Manager Of The Video Store Next To Your Store, No One Is There To Open The Store" call. Of course, one of the idiots who came to the party was supposed to open and didn't wake up. Tried to go back to sleep but an hour later, my overnight guests were awake and yapping so I rolled out of bed. I had big plans to make breakfast, which were leapt upon by one of Kris's friends mere seconds after I appeared out of the bedroom. Eventually I woke up enough to cook and we made a huge feast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes before our guests departed.

It was, without doubt, one of the most fun weekends in recent memory, worth any amount of aggravation, stress, or sleep-deprivation, which, except for sleep-deprivation, there wasn't much of. We laughed almost continuously and had a good old fashioned fun time. I bonded with Michael P's girl Haley over our mutual uncomfortableness in large groups of strangers. She's really a cool fun girl. It was, in the end, a most amazing weekend.

Which, let's face it kids, I'm pretty old and I won't be having another one of these for a WHILE. So it's good that I appreciate it as much as I do.

A Mystery About A Fridge

It is done. Weighing in at a full 15 pages and not a line less, Fritzy's Fridge has been submitted to the judges a full 5 hours before the deadline.

Now to drink and party all night long and then spend 6 weeks waiting to hear.

Anyone who wants to read the final product, holla.

The Internet Is For Porn (& other stuff too)

I had been planning to do a post about my favorite vlogs for a while, but now that I'm getting around to it, I realized I only have 2. So I'll just pepper them in among some of my other favorite stuff I found floating around the internet today.

(Things are MASSIVELY slow at work. And, yes, mom, I am writing, I actually have a rewrite of a 1st draft of my competition script in the works so don't get your panties in a knot. I'll get it out to anyone who wants to read it tonight.)

Today's Happy Thoughts

• I have a new live recording of Schocholautte and you don't! Well, it's not so much that you don't that makes me happy, as much as it is that I do. It's great. I am also psyched for the 3, count 'em 3, super shows lined up for this weekend. For which we are going to have many guests. Super exciting band stuff!
• OMG you guys! TWOP has totally changed their layout and it's freaking me OUT. Television Without Pity is a website that recaps tv shows (and now apparently, movies ?!?!?) and they have lots of funny writers and I have been following them for ages. They were recently bought by Bravo and a lot of changes have been made. Check 'em out, you're sure to find something there you like. Plus, bonus for you, the layout changes won't freak you out if you've never been there before. (NOTE: give them a little while before you go clicking, apparently the new layout is making them a little buggy.)
• While at TWOP, check out The Week Without Pity, one of my favorite vlogs. It outlines the best, worst, and guilty pleasurest shows of the week, all in about 4 minutes. The dry deadpan humor of djb, the vlogger, is pretty fantastic and he puts together funny images to go with them. It comes out every Friday. Check it out!
• There was a new Zero Punctuation up today. ZP is my other favorite vlog, brought to me by Kris, which will be obvious when you go check it out. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw "is a British-born, currently Australian-based wirter and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder" who does video game reviews for Escapist Magazine. He talks really fast (hence the title) and is hilarious, even if you know nothing about games. The visual aids in the videos help you get the jokes and his British accent and humor make  you laugh. Check out the archives and then anxiously await a new one every Wednesday.
• Improv Everywhere is just so cool. I know you probably saw their frozen Grand Central stunt or something else online. You should check out all their missions. I highly recommend Best Game Ever.
• Torso Pants are just like t-shirts! 
• I really hope this guy gets somewhere with his career because he's a self-made star and really talented and just a genuinely nice guy.

What ain't no country I ever heard of.

A little treat for LOST fans.

And a classic fave in response.

I'm having a weird day. First thing in the morning I had a stranger diggin' around in my lady parts and now I'm trying to think of ways to calm Kris down out a stress that's usually ascribed to me.

Short Film, Bleacher Seat Sunburn, and My Name In Lights

So, let's see. This was actually a big weekend. 

• Thursday night was another hit rock and roll show, kicking off Schocholautte's month long residency at the Trash Bar. Always a good time and I expect many more to come.
• Friday there was very little to be done at work. I came in. I dicked around while awaiting some files to come in. The files came and the little work that needed to be done got done. At which point my boss was like "Well, no point in paying you to sit here and stare out the window, why dontcha go home?" Don't hafta tell me twice so I hightailed it out and had lunch with my mom and then got our long overdue laundry done at the mom-dramat, where the banana bread is fresh-baked and you can revel in a Tivo'd Masterpiece version of Jane Austen's Emma.
• There's this thing I did on a whim in the middle of the week, last week, and that thing was to sign up for the NYC Midnight Madness Screenwriting competition. My class is just about over and I'm kind of all about short films right now so why not another kick in the ass to get writing? A coworker asked "what's the prize?" and my answer is, I don't really care. So at any rate, Friday at midnight, my assignment arrived: A mystery about a refrigerator, in 15 pages, in a week. Anyone who wants to read, give a shout. Of course, there would have to be something to read first ("hey maybe you should be writing that instead of blogging!" I know, shut up).
• Saturday I got a long awaited haircut. I don't quite have the Posh Spice look I was hoping for, my hair's not long enough in the front yet. But I do look and feel fresher and prettier.
• Saturday afternoon I accompanied my sister's boyfriend to my first Yankee game of the season. She got him a block of Saturday bleacher seats but she had a big test so I took her place for this game. The Yanks lost and the game kinda dragged but the weather was gorgeous and we had a good time.
• I got back from the game just in time to grab Kris and haul him out for the premiere of that move I worked on a couple of years ago. For the first time ever, I was able to/had to pull a "Does it help me get in if I worked on the film?" I felt guilty, but I was on the crew and I didn't wanna drive an hour and a half and not get in. I spotted tons of people I remembered from working on the shoot, but because of my natural shyness, not being in the mood for introductions and small talk, and not being sure how well I am thought of by these folks, I flew under the radar and kept my head down. We crammed into a gorgeous huge old theater to watch the movie. I have to say, I was majorly impressed. I've read the script, I was there when it was being shot, and I know stuff about what it was based on. All of that, and the not-very-indicative trailer, made me think it would be kind of a mediocre summer rom-com. But it was actually pretty good, with some very good humor and great performances (I knew the actors were good, but I didn't get to spend a lot of time on set so I didn't see much of this). I was awash with memories for the entire screening, pointing out people I knew, crew members who appeared as extras, things that happened behind the scenes, etc. At the end, the list of people who made the movie possible rolled from the bottom of the screen to the top and my name was on it. One of the most amazing experiences of my life. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. I hope this movie makes it to theaters so everyone I know can see it. I also hope it makes it because it is a product of love from a lot of talented people. I complained a lot while working on it and since, but in hindsight, many of my complaints were not the movie's fault. The movie is great. I wish it well. It taught me a lot and it made me happy.
• Yesterday was a lovely sweet and lazy day that I can summarize thusly: sleep late, bacon, writing, House of the Dead, groceries, writing, freakout and breakthrough, tacos, tv, lovin', lying in the dark laughing uncontrollably while your boyfriend quotes The State.

Comedic Interlude II

Peter, one of my gay coworkers, and I are googling I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings looking for an answer to a simple question.

Peter: Oooh! SparkleNotes! Oh wait, no. That's SparkNotes.

Me: SparkleNotes is the gay version.

Ba-dum ksh!

These guys make it so easy.