All My Good News

Wow, so I haven't updated this in a while. And while I don't really have a riveting new post ready yet (there are some coming soon, I promise!), I just can't let that unexciting "Blog Tagged" business be the first thing people see when they accidentally click over to this blog on their way to something far more interesting. So until I can get my act together and actually write something cool, here's a list of some of the things that I'm really, really happy about right at the moment:

My job is awesome. Yesterday they called me in early so I could get ice cream in honor of a co-worker's last day. It was awesome. And I think I'm getting a raise. Yay!

My room is clean! This is pretty big news for me.

I created a sweet music mix. And then got it to actually burn onto a CD, after many many battles with my computer's disgruntled CD drive. Ever wonder what happens when you put The Paperbacks next to Fountains of Wayne close to Bright Eyes with The Beatles and some Amos Lee mixed in? Magic, that's what happens. Magic.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. We're talking classic adventure gaming of a particularly brilliant and challenging variety, with lots of fun characters and a creepy voodoo twist. The voice acting is pretty great, too - Tim Curry's weird New Orleans accent is, if not exactly impressive, consistently entertaining. And I gave myself bonus points for recognizing Leah Remini as the voice of Gabriel's wisecracking assistant, Grace. Finding yet another way to use up hours of my time without accomplishing anything important...now THAT is something to celebrate.

I had the best Memorial Day weekend ever. I spent the weekend up in SLC* with one of my favorite people in the whole entire world. I choose to use sub-points to explain this one, since trying to give a sample of the awesome things about the experience led to a sentence too long and messy-looking even for me.

• We hiked Grandeur Peak. Which, as it turns out, really is pretty grand.
• I finally saw Ice Age. Now I know what everyone's been quoting around here!
• I met some of the nicest girls ever, such as the girl who walked me to Gospel Doctrine class on Sunday and then stood around with me waiting for my friends to show up, even though she didn't know me and was planning to attend a class on a different floor. It was like something straight out of a Relief Society conference talk.
• I got to play with an adorable almost-grown-up black lab.
• We watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (cheesy acting! Fake accents! Alan Rickman! Hurray!), belted out some Bryan Adams, and then I got to actually sit and watch Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for the first time (SJP** + Helen Hunt + Dance TV = Awesome). The other awesome girls I met during this experience just made it that much better (they were super funny, plus we resurrected the "to french" verb, as in, "We totally frenched outside his car last night". Can't wait until that one hits my word-a-day widget).
  
• I didn't have to sleep at home, which made it feel like a vacation even though I was only 40 miles away.
• There was definitely some HOT sequin-clad dancing to be seen. Now if only I'd taken a picture!
• I finally, finally saw Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration up at Temple Square. Not that I got much out of it in between spotting Tim Threlfall, thinking about all the writing and production drama I'd heard about it, and wondering if anyone else noticed that Matt Bellows plays two different characters. Oh well.
• Even though it rained, my hair still looked good thanks to the (mildly) cute black hat that I picked up at the mall last week.
• Apparently I give really good hugs. Score!

I'm going to see Indiana Jones in, like, an hour. And I'm pretty excited about it too, despite everything I've heard. The big news, really, is that I'm actually going to go see a movie in the theater. With people. I haven't done that in quite some time, as evidenced by the litany of "I haven't seen that"s that I uttered over the weekend.

Well, that's all the big stuff right at the moment. And now, in preparation for the fulfillment of my last bit of good news up there, I'm going to get off this computer and quit blogging for a bit. Which is good news for everyone, really.

*That's Salt Lake City, if you're not cool enough to use initials for everything.
**Sarah Jessica Parker. Come on people, get with it!

Alas! Tagged!

1. What book have you read recently?
Still in the middle of Anna Karenina. I come back to it whenever I'm between books. That and The Last Unicorn are my go-to books for when I just want to be reading but I don't know what. Next up I'll probably read Persuasion. Haven't decided yet.

2. Given the chance, what special ability/power would you like to have?
Shape-shifting. Think of the mischief!

3. List two things you have eaten today:
Popcorn
Honey Bunches of Oats

4. What's your favorite color? Why?
Pink. It's cute and fun and pretty and kind of controversial, I guess. I don't know, I just like it!

5. Where is the place you want to go the most?
Hm...back to London. Or someplace where I'm on-camera and the writing is exceptional.

6. Name two places you have lived:
1. McMinnville(ish), Oregon
2. Provo, Utah

7. Do you believe in seeing a rainbow after the rain?
No, that thing doesn't even exist. It's just a big, multicolored fantasy.

8. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Absolutely nothing. It'd be awesome.
Except maybe I'd put all the money in a big vault and swim in it like Scrooge McDuck.

9. Which type of person do you hate the most?
Closed-minded people. Also, genocidal maniacs.

10. What are two things on your to do list right now?
1. Organize finances
2. Actually write my screenplay. Yeesh.

11. If you have a fault, would you rather the people around you point it out to you or would you rather they keep quiet?
Wow, that's a pretty big "if". I mean, I'm going to have to get entirely out of my own experience here. Now, if I could possibly IMAGINE having a fault...I guess I much prefer to have other people be honest with me. The worst thing in the world is suspecting that someone is not telling you something, even when it's to make me feel better. I mean, that never actually happens to me, but if it did, that would suck. Right?

12. List two jobs you have had:
1. HVAC Maintenance worker for BYU
2. Human Resources slave (well, paid slave...who chose to be there...and could leave anytime she wanted...) for Kaiser Permanente

13. What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
Money. Or puppies.

14. Is there anything that you have done which you regret?
It's cliche, but I really do tend to regret the things I didn't do more. Like when I didn't work harder to get what I wanted, or when I didn't say what I wanted because I was scared, that kind of thing.

15. Name two of your bad habits:
1. Skipping classes at will
2. Chewing on things - pens, fingernails, that kind of thing

16. What are your feelings about the person who tagged you?
I have a great amount of love for Janae. Plus I had this really weird dream about her last week where she had this really crazy blonde, blonde hair, and that's just got to mean something good.

17. Who do you Tag? Why?
I tag...you. So if you read this, and you haven't done it, then consider yourself tagged. Why do I do this? Because it's a good cop-out since I don't really feel like thinking of anyone who hasn't been tagged yet. But seriously, do it!

Changing...it keeps changing...

"Changes come and we know we can't, we can't stop them. But I hold these memories and I will never drop them." - Brett Dennen, 'When I Go'

Yesterday as I held in my hands the Install CD for the scriptwriting software that was to change my life forever (more on that later), it occurred to me that life now is already rather different from what it was just two weeks ago. The College Years* are crazy that way - it seems like everything changes in a second, over and over again. OK, that makes it sound like something especially significant has happened, when in fact, these are all the highlights:

I cut my hair
And it's a very significant change. Like, it went from past the shoulders to above the chin. Which I know is a very small area of the body, comparatively, but it makes a world of difference in how people look at you. Not only that, but I let some girl at a hair school do it. Being as I'm a bit of a control freak, this was a pretty major adventure for me. The stylist was great, though the end result looks nothing like what I came in planning on getting. This was a little hard to deal with at first (see two sentences ago), but now I'm loving it. And hey, here's some before and after photos. Note that in the before, I have patchy remnants of show makeup on my face, and in the after, I am in serious danger of going emo. And I'm sitting in a closet for some reason. Anyway, just remember these pictures are about the hair, people.








See? It's like looking at two completely different people with the exact same face and body!

I started Spring Term classes
But have I actually attended my Physical Science lecture? Um...let's just say not yet.

I wrote 60 pages in one night
See, it suddenly occurred to me last Wednesday that the submission deadline for WDA scripts was...last Thursday. So I stayed up pretty much all night, wrote for about 8 hours straight, and managed to turn a 28-page idea into an 88-page finished draft (which admittedly was 18 pages shorter than my projected length estimate), and yeah, maybe the second act is not fantastic, but the experience itself was remarkably satisfying and hey, at least it's done. And submitted. And now I just have eons of rewrites to go, which is the part I complain about the most even though secretly I find it very enjoyable.

Final Draft! Final Draft 7 Academic! Woohoo!
What is this Final Draft of which I speak? Only the most glorious scriptwriting program ever invented! It arrived yesterday, and I found it sitting in a FedEx box, propped against my bedroom door (thanks, roommate, for bringing it in). After the considerable coaxing it took for my computer to actually run the install CD, I got it going and started to play. And oh. Oh people. It's incredible. And so fun. And convenient. And I love using it. Seriously, I haven't been this turned on by a computer program since...well, let's be honest, computer programs don't turn me on. That would be kind of creepy. But I love it so much. And I just want to be writing scripts all the time, but then I realize I don't have anything to write because I haven't gotten through all the prewriting stuff yet and that's just plain annoying. But in the meantime I've been playing around with short screenplays and let me tell you, it is fun. I'll be trying out the stageplay formats later today. You cannot fathom the ridiculous joy this brings me.
In related news, I'm about to get to work on my first ever full-length screenplay (or screenplays, since I'm grappling with two ideas at the moment). When I'm not feeling like a sellout, I'm just real excited about it. I'll definitely let you know how it goes.

I started watching 30 Rock
And by "started watching" I mean watched every episode of both seasons of the show between now and two weeks ago. People, this show is downright brilliant. You can catch the first season online if you have Netflix (or you can just find someone who has it on DVD), and the current season is all available on NBC.com. Please watch it. Also, I now want to be Tina Fey when I grow up.

I overdrafted my checking account
Oops.

Then I got paid
And now it's all good. Right? Oh boy. Next up on my list of skills to acquire - financial responsibility.

I figured out that I'm kind of good with kids
Like, kids other than my nephews. Who knew?

I started listening to Brett Dennen
Listen to him right now. Please. Here's one to get you started.**
And those are just the random things from the past two weeks that occurred to me right now. Let me tell you, it's been a very significant fortnight. I feel like a completely different person. I look like a different person. I'm loving to write again, I'm loving to do my hair in the morning, I'm actually getting to know people in my ward...it's a very good place to be in.

On a completely unrelated note, I am thisclose to writing and posting a rant/critique about some sex talks I've gotten from parents and church teachers and how I feel they fit into the development of a rape culture (don't believe we live in a rape culture? I can point it out to you). Not totally sure if it's a good idea in light of a recent discussion on Feministe about posting certain things under your real name. Of course, most of them were talking about people discussing their own (often controversial) experiences rather than just writing opinions, and I'm almost certainly being paranoid, but it's enough to give a person pause.

*The real ones as well as those featured on Saved By the Bell.
**Seriously, join imeem. Now THAT will change your life.

Right now I am thinking...

What on EARTH am I doing in the library? This is going to completely ruin my reputation.