Leave it to the Brits, they know best.

I went home for Christmas. I baked a ridiculous amount of food. It almost feels like that's all I did. But that isn't true because I learned to play the ukulele too. He is red, his name is Banjo, and my parents thought it was ridiculous that I bought myself a ukulele four days before Christmas. What they don't understand is that being whimsical is so much fun.

I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to see while I was home. Which always sucks, but it's always hard to find the balance between friends and family and mental health time by myself. I didn't get to hang out with D and Aaron though, which sucks. BUT I'm headed home for Spring Break and I will see them then!

What I did do is spend a lot of time with family and extended family. I hung out with my sister and Grayson and Alex. Grayson is apparently a little person now? I don't know how that happens but it's weird. I didn't get to go see a movie with my sister but we'll work it out for next time.

I did go see Avatar when my brother was back. That was cool. Predictable but cool. It's kind of annoying how I can't really watch movies anymore without deconstructing them as I do, but it makes me feel smart so that's all good.

I spent New Years with my parents. It sounds lame but it was awesome. We made a ridiculous amount of appetizers and a couple pitchers of frozen margaritas and watch Canada kick some USA ass in the IIHF. WE lost the championship later but we don't talk about that. Then we watched some of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame show, saw Simon and Garfunkle, they were stoned. It was pretty epic. Then I went to the basement and talked to some friends before crashing at like five after twelve.

I probably stayed home a bit long, people were on my last nerve when I got on the plane so I'm gonna try to keep my time home limited. Then I spent a good seven and a half hours in the Calgary airport. Everything was closed but Banjo was in my backpack so we rocked out despite getting funny looks like people had never seen a ninja ukulele party.

And then there was the birthday. It was pretty mellow, I went out for dinner where we both got a little tipsy and stumbled our way back to my place for a food coma. The next day I had school and it was pretty sweet. THEN after class everyone went to Shenanigans, on a Wednesday which happens to be karaoke night because it was Tyler's birthday and my birthday and James' birthday and Holly's birthday kinda...anyway tehre was a lot of birthday. And my cousin Dane showed up which was wicked and we were all chillin' havin' a good time when I turn around and my brother is there.

And that's where I lost it. It was the best thing ever. So I ditched my friends and hung out with my brother and Brian and Josh and Dane and Cass. Until they left. And I stayed. And got a bit sloppy.

And as for school well...

Up until yesterday I had perfect attendance. And it was awesome.

Homework and sick days do not mix. Unless of course you took a sick day to get homework done, but that's not really a sick day.

List of homework I need to do for this week:

1. workshop pages for 3 first acts...and then mine but I don't plan on doing mine, that seems redundant. Especially considering I was only supposed to write my first act. Well my first act is like...four pages long. Maybe. Then they told me that i needed to hand in 15-30 pages. So, i explained to them that my first act is super short, and was informed that is unacceptable. And to that I say Kramer vs. Kramer jerkface. So I wrote 18 pages into the script, it doesn't end with the first act and I will catch shit for that later but who cares? My script. My rules.

2. Read Shawshenk Redemption for Adaptation. I have read Shawshenk before, the short story not the script...why would we be reading the script for an Adaptation class?, and I love it. I really do. The problem is that we only have course packs and it's very clear that an intern just typed it straight out of the book and didn't spell check. Stephen King doesn't misspell his character's names randomly. He just doesn't.

3. Documentary one-sheet. Of course this needs to be done with my documentary partners and since I wasn't at school yesterday I have no idea where we're at. I will be emailing them shortly but the likelihood of me getting anything done today is very slim.

Homework I need to do for next week:

1. Write 30 more pages of my script and fix up everything that gets work shopped on Thursday.
2. Write a sketch centered around a good character. I am not good at sketch. That's all this class has taught me. Sketch should be left to the British because they do it best.
3. Read the first act of Romeo and Juliet. If I decide to read it again. I'm still not sure, I figure if I can do the opening monologue I shouldn't have to reread it. But there's a test. And I like getting good grades. Almost as much as I liked having perfect attendance. Shit.
4. I have no idea what we're doing next in documentary. Probably trying to contact someone which should be interesting...
5. Read and workshop four other first acts. I love workshopping. I really do. I like working on other peoples ideas more than mine. This has been pointed out to me as something relaly bad for feature writing and really good for tv writing...so...yay?

Apparently I'm ridiculous when I'm sick. I don't know if that's true. I don't feel any more ridiculous than always. Maybe everyone else is ridiculous when I'm sick...that makes more sense.

Well that's one way to tell the parents....But it's only half the time!

SO.

Term Two just started. So far I have a wicked outline for my Fringe Spec, a short script that I don't entirely hate, and three feature ideas to take to the pitch fest on Thursday. Which I'm not too worried about. Thanks to Kelsey and John I can pretty much pitch anything. My final project was to pitch a movie based on the logline: An ancient and powerful wizard competes in a gritty innercity basketball tournament with the help of his magical talking bong. It would've made millions.

Term two means that I actually go to pages for my spec, which is crazy exciting. It means I go from pitch to outline to treatment on one of my features. It means I develop an animated tv pilot. Along with having a dialogue class, another genre study class (crime!), and something else....but I forget what. All in all it means a lot of reading and a shit ton of writing. I'm stoked.

Also we got our new campus today. See the writers dind't really have a campus of our own, we got sent to basements and boardrooms with slidey walls, and wherever they cold fit us. It sucked. It caused crazy amounts of confusion. BUT NOW! Now we have our very own floor, still on Hastings but you can't win 'em all. And its pretty! And new! and there's sixty inch flat screens in every class! And our very own theatre with blackout curtains! And a lounge with leather couches and a tv and racks of movies! and a kitchen and a bathroom without coded entry! It's all very exciting. I'll post pictures maybe.

I've been looking into fellowships for after school is done. Even though school isn't done forever. I'm not too worried about the competition, the only thing that worries me is getting a work visa. That seems complicated. And hard.

OH! My condo? Awesome. Like woven from strands of awesome universe particles. And no one uses the pool, which is weird...but good 'cause then I can swim all i want. Downside: the giant poster of Roberto Luongo that stares into my windows all day...supercreep. I should post condo pictures too!

Talked to my younger cousin today, she's coming out with her mom and brother next weekish. Apparently she's getting another tattoo, one on her ribs. A plant of some kind with the script "tuesday's child is full of grace". Which prompted me to figure out what day of the week I was born on.

I was born on a Sunday!
You wanna know what Sunday's child is full of?
I sure did!
Turns out Sunday's child isn't full of anything:

"But the child born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay"



*cough*