Well another Hump Day survived. I cut out of work about an hour early to run some errands. I spent about an hour at the Post Office. Postal employees must dread me, because I also walk in wanting to insure some sort of package to Japan or buy aerogrammes or need International Reply Coupons. No first-class parcel post to Des Moines, Iowa here. Part of the reason I had to go was to send in my airline vouchers to American Airlines for my upcoming trip to San Fransisco. Just a long-weekend really.
M and N have been trying to lure me out there for a few months, especially M. The next semester is pretty well booked. Between South by Southwest (SXSW) and this film class and other people having plans, coming up with an actual available weekend was pretty hard. I think I'm going to try and visit A. in NYC too. The ludicrous thing about the USA is that it costs more to fly to NYC $401 than to fly to London $258!!! I don't think it's related to the terrorist attacks either. Austin just doesn't have as much of a connection to NYC as it does to San Fransisco, Chicago, LA, or even Boston. Then again, Austin is hardly the air hub of Texas.
My film class started. The place was packed--folks had to sit on apple crates and the floor. Still I think the class will be a lot of fun. RedStripe doesn't seem to be wigging out as much about the class and Shiraz has already recruited NegraModelo to act in her short film. The fact that we'll screen this stuff in front of potentially 350 people at the Arbor Theater puts a bit more pressure on me. But that's good too. This class isn't exactly free... I'm getting the impression that film will be an insanely expensive hobby. I might have to stay with tech writing just to pay for equipment.

This past weekend I was a movie-watching machine. I saw Amelie and Gosford Park. I’d have to say that I liked Amelie more. I think Blackhawk Down will help round out my current movie-watching binge.

As for the rest of the weekend, I spent a good chunk of Saturday organizing quotes for my Stephen Harrigan interview. I don’t know if I was wasting time, but I feel like I was doing something semi-productive. I may actually get around to querying a magazine to write an article since I actually have my quotes cleaned up a bit. I’ve felt stuck about the whole process lately, mainly because I haven’t been working on anything at all for the past couple of months. Right before a Thanksgiving and Christmas seems to be a bad time to start working on a magazine article. This is also a bad time to start dating somebody (though for some reason it always seems like I start dating people at this time of year…)

Yesterday, I spent most of my time lounging around reading newspapers. Something that I normally don’t allow myself to do. My parents must have done a number on me about sloth—like they have about many other things in my life. (Therapy’s self-awareness feature is now kicking in.)

Tomorrow is my first day of our film class. I have a feeling that I may be really busy with this, this semester. Still, it will present me with a more creative outlet than usual. I don’t really know what to expect from it. I know that RedStripe is nervous about it. Shiraz has not made any comments. I guess it’s time to start coming up with story ideas…