Ups and Downs
1. In mid-January, Jordan and I, both being very financially unorganized, didn't pay the electric bill. I thought that we had at least two more weeks before they disconnected it. It shut off on a Friday morning, and we were about $200 short of having enough to get it turned back on, so we had no choice but to sit in the dark all weekend. Well, I did anyway. Jordan has a million friends every six blocks, so of course he found a place to stay in five seconds.
I was too embarrassed to ask anyone if I could stay with them for the weekend, so I just toughed it out. I showered and shaved at my gym a few blocks away, and ate warm food at local fast food places. It really wasn't so bad ... I just watched Netflix on my phone, and ate all of the food in my fridge before it went bad. I also volunteered to pick up shifts at work so that I could stay in a place with electricity as long as possible. You never realize how much you take certain things for granted until you lose them.
The most memorable part of the weekend was when I came home from work one night, and Jordan and one of his friends was just sitting in the dark on the living room couch. They were taking a break at our cold, dark apartment before they drove off to their next adventure. I sat with them, and since there was nothing else to do, we just talked. We had a really nice, memorable conversation for almost an hour.
Ever since the huge breakthrough of social media, I couldn't even remember the last time that I actually sat down and talked with someone like that. Humans don't do enough of that in this day and age. When Monday finally arrived, we had saved up enough from our restaurant jobs to get the electricity back on. And that is the LAST time that that will ever happen. My $75 electric bill is getting paid the day that I get it in the mail.
2. I had a wonderful Super Bowl Sunday. I requested it off several weeks ago, but since I was behind on bills, I almost volunteered to work it. I mean, I wouldn't have missed it - there's ten big screen TV's in my workplace, and they all would have been playing the game. But I decided not to, and thank God I didn't because I found out later that the restaurant was dead. Instead, I threw a last minute Super Bowl party at my place. I moved Jordan's 55" TV downstairs, cleaned the place up, bought some junk food, and texted everyone that I knew.
We didn't have a big turnout at once, but several people drifted in and out throughout the game, making their appearance at my place as they skipped around to several different parties. Even Jordan, who couldn't care less about football, watched the second quarter with us, and the halftime show. Two of my best friends were there for almost the entire game, and with the exciting 49ers comeback and the Ravens winning, it was too perfect. :) Oh, and I fell in love with Beyonce during the halftime show, and now I'm searching for her videos and music online.
3. I've been watching a lot of "Intervention" lately. I LOVE that show. I don't think I've ever seen a reality show with so much emotion. I get teary-eyed every time I watch that big scene at the end where everyone's crying as they beg their loved one to stop doing drugs, and then he or she agrees to go to treatment. It's like we as the viewers all become part of that family, and we stand right behind them, begging that person to go to treatment. The ending is basically the same for every episode, but I'm still intrigued how exactly it's going to play out.
I caught two great episodes yesterday. In one of them, a girl on drugs got so frustrated half-way through the show, that she quit the documentary and kept telling the cameraman not to film her. At one point, she even walked up to the camera and tried to break it. She finally agreed to go to treatment while she was sitting in the back of a police car. In another, a guy ran away from the intervention while his Mom chased him down and begged him to go back and talk to the group. He kept cussing at her and calling her every name in the book while she cried and begged. I wanted to reach through the TV screen and deck him for talking to his nice mother like that. Anyway, I would love to be a cameraman on a show like that.
4. I have five college interns this semester, and it's going amazingly well. They're all very talented and dedicated students, and I'm excited to make short films with them. The past month, I've been teaching them a lot about screenwriting and directing. They write back with great questions, and they always thank me for my advice. I really think that they're enjoying my internship, and that they're learning a lot from me as far as film production. I'm excited to see what movies they come up with when we start shooting in March.
5. Speaking of my film career, I already have 16 weddings booked for this year. I shot 19 in 2012, and seeing how it's only February, I can see this being a very productive year for me. Maybe I can even quit being a server. (crossing fingers)
6. Jordan and I finally have another car. There was a bad incident last week. He got his school loan refund, and he used it to pay me a few bucks that he owed me, and then he spent another two grand on a nice car from a dealership. I took the car out that night to celebrate. My friend Al and I hit up a few clubs, had a good time ... then the transmission completely went out on us at three in the morning on the south side of Indy. After a half hour of unsuccessfully trying to get the car moving, Al called and woke up his Dad. His Dad drove Al home, and I said that he could just drop me off at a hotel, but the nice guy drove me all the way home.
The next day, we called the dealership and told them what happened. They were completely unsympathetic and unwilling to help us. I rented a car to get us around, and Jordan paid $150 to get the car towed all the way from the south side to the dealership at 96th and Keystone. (And I will take this opportunity to publicly identify their business and demonize them so that no one else gets screwed over by them - Tom Wood Nissan). The pricks who worked there offered Jordan a crappier car with 40,000 more miles. I flipped out and told them that we demand a full refund for the car, AND to be reimbursed for the rental and the towing. There was no way that they could have not known about the bad transmission when they sold Jordan the car, and even if they didn't, it's their duty to satisfy their customer, especially when so much money is involved.
They refused to cover any of our extra expenses, and they kept giving us the same line "We don't have to take the car back at all." I had to leave before I went off on someone. Jordan was pretty submissive; he just wanted a car that worked, and I understood that. He was worried that if I pissed them off too much, they would just tell us to leave, hence sticking us with the giant paperweight with four wheels. After all of that headache, the car that they gave us really isn't so bad. It runs very nicely, and gets us from Point A to Point B, which is really all we could have asked for. I'm just tired of dealing with crappy cars. I don't need a brand new Mercedes or Audi, I just want a reliable car that can get me places without any extra hassle. Is that really so much to ask?
6. Not a whole lot else has happened lately. I got a job offer to work for a new TV show in the mid-west, but I turned it down because it was extremely time consuming, and it wasn't a job that I would have been passionate about. Plus I wasn't sure if the guy running the show really had all of the money that he was promising.
End rant.
I was too embarrassed to ask anyone if I could stay with them for the weekend, so I just toughed it out. I showered and shaved at my gym a few blocks away, and ate warm food at local fast food places. It really wasn't so bad ... I just watched Netflix on my phone, and ate all of the food in my fridge before it went bad. I also volunteered to pick up shifts at work so that I could stay in a place with electricity as long as possible. You never realize how much you take certain things for granted until you lose them.
The most memorable part of the weekend was when I came home from work one night, and Jordan and one of his friends was just sitting in the dark on the living room couch. They were taking a break at our cold, dark apartment before they drove off to their next adventure. I sat with them, and since there was nothing else to do, we just talked. We had a really nice, memorable conversation for almost an hour.
Ever since the huge breakthrough of social media, I couldn't even remember the last time that I actually sat down and talked with someone like that. Humans don't do enough of that in this day and age. When Monday finally arrived, we had saved up enough from our restaurant jobs to get the electricity back on. And that is the LAST time that that will ever happen. My $75 electric bill is getting paid the day that I get it in the mail.
2. I had a wonderful Super Bowl Sunday. I requested it off several weeks ago, but since I was behind on bills, I almost volunteered to work it. I mean, I wouldn't have missed it - there's ten big screen TV's in my workplace, and they all would have been playing the game. But I decided not to, and thank God I didn't because I found out later that the restaurant was dead. Instead, I threw a last minute Super Bowl party at my place. I moved Jordan's 55" TV downstairs, cleaned the place up, bought some junk food, and texted everyone that I knew.
We didn't have a big turnout at once, but several people drifted in and out throughout the game, making their appearance at my place as they skipped around to several different parties. Even Jordan, who couldn't care less about football, watched the second quarter with us, and the halftime show. Two of my best friends were there for almost the entire game, and with the exciting 49ers comeback and the Ravens winning, it was too perfect. :) Oh, and I fell in love with Beyonce during the halftime show, and now I'm searching for her videos and music online.
3. I've been watching a lot of "Intervention" lately. I LOVE that show. I don't think I've ever seen a reality show with so much emotion. I get teary-eyed every time I watch that big scene at the end where everyone's crying as they beg their loved one to stop doing drugs, and then he or she agrees to go to treatment. It's like we as the viewers all become part of that family, and we stand right behind them, begging that person to go to treatment. The ending is basically the same for every episode, but I'm still intrigued how exactly it's going to play out.
I caught two great episodes yesterday. In one of them, a girl on drugs got so frustrated half-way through the show, that she quit the documentary and kept telling the cameraman not to film her. At one point, she even walked up to the camera and tried to break it. She finally agreed to go to treatment while she was sitting in the back of a police car. In another, a guy ran away from the intervention while his Mom chased him down and begged him to go back and talk to the group. He kept cussing at her and calling her every name in the book while she cried and begged. I wanted to reach through the TV screen and deck him for talking to his nice mother like that. Anyway, I would love to be a cameraman on a show like that.
4. I have five college interns this semester, and it's going amazingly well. They're all very talented and dedicated students, and I'm excited to make short films with them. The past month, I've been teaching them a lot about screenwriting and directing. They write back with great questions, and they always thank me for my advice. I really think that they're enjoying my internship, and that they're learning a lot from me as far as film production. I'm excited to see what movies they come up with when we start shooting in March.
5. Speaking of my film career, I already have 16 weddings booked for this year. I shot 19 in 2012, and seeing how it's only February, I can see this being a very productive year for me. Maybe I can even quit being a server. (crossing fingers)
6. Jordan and I finally have another car. There was a bad incident last week. He got his school loan refund, and he used it to pay me a few bucks that he owed me, and then he spent another two grand on a nice car from a dealership. I took the car out that night to celebrate. My friend Al and I hit up a few clubs, had a good time ... then the transmission completely went out on us at three in the morning on the south side of Indy. After a half hour of unsuccessfully trying to get the car moving, Al called and woke up his Dad. His Dad drove Al home, and I said that he could just drop me off at a hotel, but the nice guy drove me all the way home.
The next day, we called the dealership and told them what happened. They were completely unsympathetic and unwilling to help us. I rented a car to get us around, and Jordan paid $150 to get the car towed all the way from the south side to the dealership at 96th and Keystone. (And I will take this opportunity to publicly identify their business and demonize them so that no one else gets screwed over by them - Tom Wood Nissan). The pricks who worked there offered Jordan a crappier car with 40,000 more miles. I flipped out and told them that we demand a full refund for the car, AND to be reimbursed for the rental and the towing. There was no way that they could have not known about the bad transmission when they sold Jordan the car, and even if they didn't, it's their duty to satisfy their customer, especially when so much money is involved.
They refused to cover any of our extra expenses, and they kept giving us the same line "We don't have to take the car back at all." I had to leave before I went off on someone. Jordan was pretty submissive; he just wanted a car that worked, and I understood that. He was worried that if I pissed them off too much, they would just tell us to leave, hence sticking us with the giant paperweight with four wheels. After all of that headache, the car that they gave us really isn't so bad. It runs very nicely, and gets us from Point A to Point B, which is really all we could have asked for. I'm just tired of dealing with crappy cars. I don't need a brand new Mercedes or Audi, I just want a reliable car that can get me places without any extra hassle. Is that really so much to ask?
6. Not a whole lot else has happened lately. I got a job offer to work for a new TV show in the mid-west, but I turned it down because it was extremely time consuming, and it wasn't a job that I would have been passionate about. Plus I wasn't sure if the guy running the show really had all of the money that he was promising.
End rant.