It's All About Time

Yesterday, once again, I headed up to Charm City to work with my good buddy Dean on a submission film for the National 48 Hour Film Festival. This is my 7th collaboration with Running Storm Productions (6 Films and 1 Viral Video), and it's always an experience. This year we were thrown for a loop with the genre picks. Apparently out 1st pick was for a Western Or Musical. We gave up that pick for a Wild Card, and ended up with Time Travel or Doppelganger movie. Not what we were hoping for.

Friday night I was up til after 1 Am working on a treatment and discussing the project with Dean. He was up for another 6 hours turning my treatment into the script for our 8 Minute movie on Time Travel/Doppelgangers. I woke up early yesterday to review the script and then headed up to Baltimore for filming.

It was a long day. We got a late start. We filmed the exterior scenes 1st to avoid a rainy afternoon and then of course it never rained. So we spent the hottest hours of the day filming out in the sun, and then filmed our interior scenes during the afternoon. This project seemed to be a difficult one for everyone to visualize the final product and much time was spent trying to figure out difficult scenes, and logistics of the script. In the end we wrapped after 7PM, had some pizza and then left Dean to his editing.

It's funny though, last night when I got home from the shoot Back To The Future, which we briefly referenced in our film and often joked about on the set, was on TV. Today I get up and ABC Family is doing a Back To The Future marathon. Time travel has suddenly taken over my weekend. I am hopeful that Dean will be able to put together an amusing film from all of our footage. We will have to wait and see if the audience is as appreciative of our silly little film at the screening. I'll update you after the show.

Plaid Dogs Throughout Time

Last night we went to invited dress for Colonial Player's production of 'Dog Logic'. Tonight we took in 'Forever Plaid' at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre. Tomorrow, and some of tonight I will be dedicating to working on an original film for the National 48 Film Festival up in Baltimore. Our wild card selection of 'time travel or doppelganger' movie may throw a wrench into the works but we'll come up with something.

Lazy Day In Naptown.

Got the car worked on, did some light shopping, some light reading, and messed around with my camera phone.
This is supposed to be a panoramic view from my porch.

It Was A Bad Decision.

I should've known better. This little voice inside my head kept saying,"I'm not sure about this. Maybe you shouldn't." But I did!

I held those hamburger patties in my hand, noticing the odd color, and just an unhealthy appearance but I decided to grill them anyway. They were only a few days old, weren't they? Let's see. I bought the 4-pack of burger patties a week ago. Sara and I immediately grilled 2 burgers and ate them. I packed up the remaining burgers and threw them into the fridge to have a few days later. They should've been fine.

They weren't. I woke up Friday morning feeling sick to my stomach. I was in and out of the bathroom all morning. I kept burping up the burger all day as I fought off wave after wave of nausea, and a constant headache. Finally, around 3:30 yesterday Old Faithful blew. I rushed into the bathroom to vomit profusely and violently.

This has always been my problem with vomiting. I envy the casual regurgitator. I wish I was one of those fortunate souls who simply, and gracefully spit up the contents of their stomach, then go about their day. I am not. When I puke I end up on my knees, heaving, and shaking. The force with which I vomit has been known to pop blood vessels in my eyes, and I wake up the next day with sore abdominals. I'm also not very accurate with my aim when I throw, so it was not a pretty sight. Luckily all of the students had gone home for the day so no one was around to witness me cleaning the bathroom stall, or rinsing out my beard at the sink.

I then sat in traffic for almost 2 hours, came home, crawled in bed and slept for several hours. When I did wake up I had a persistent headache, couldn't really eat anything and was pretty much a bump on a log all night long as Sara kept the ginger ale flowing. We did not have an exciting Friday night.

I Bought A Purple Ruffle!

Memorial Day Weekend is over too soon. It just flew by. Friday through Monday evening are one big blur. Bumming around the house watching movies. Shrimpfeast in North Beach. Chillin' on my folks' dock. Swimming in the Severn. CAO America. Drinks at Mangia's to maybe say goodbye to a friend. Now it's over.

It's Tuesday morning, I'm fresh from the shower and I am anticipating an average morning commute of 'too long'. I do own a new basil plant, however. It was an impulse buy in North Beach. It's purple! I already own a basil plant; a Mammoth Basil but I thought the purple one was kinda cool. Did I need another basil plant? Sure, why not?

The niece & nephew were curious about the purple basil. I nibbled on one of the leaves and then let them split a leaf. Apparently, they really liked it because after that they wanted to pick my Ruffle clean. The nephew also thought it was funny that my middle name is an herb.

Today I Did Stay In Bed.

I took the day off. I slept in for several hours. I relaxed on the porch with a book and some coffee. Sara and I cooked lunch then went down to the beach and watched the Blue Angels practicing maneuvers over the Severn River. In the evening I met friends and attended a musical performance that Sara was a part of. I didn't accomplish anything of major importance today. I haven't solved any of life's little riddles. I didn't make any major changes in my philosophy, lifestyle, or opinions on adulthood. It's been a lazy day - a much needed lazy day.

I Should've Stayed In Bed!

Tootsie crawled up from beneath the sheets and started licking my cheek, and then neck. I slowly opened my eyes, irritated, and I glanced at the clock. It read: 6:59. I grumbled at the dog for waking me up before my alarm! Wait a minute, I normally get up at 6:00 AM... what did the clock say? 6:59 AM! Oh no, it's an hour later than I thought!! I've somehow slept through my alarms, or turned all 4 of them off without knowing it and gone back to sleep. I fly out of bed, run through the shower, and jump in my car only to sit in traffic for an hour and a half. It didn't get better.

At school I rushed around looking for coffee to kill my caffeine headache, my short fuse ran out at 9:30, and the students were in rare form - the cycle of the moon always screws everything up! I grit my teeth through a stressful school day, blew my stack with an hour and a half left of class, and then sat through an excruciatingly long meeting. Then I rushed off to my Tuesday afternoon group where my non-existent patience was sorely needed. I made a student cry.

Then I jumped into my car and drove to Fairfax to meet my brother at a funeral home for a viewing. A childhood friend of mine, whom I have not spoken to or seen in years, passed away last week from Cancer! He was younger than me, and is survived by a wife and 2 children. I found out about his death on Sunday and decided that we should go to the viewing.

I remember this friend fondly from our swim team days, cub scout meeting, elementary school classes, and numerous sleepovers! It's been surreal. I saw his mother at the memorial service for my Mom back in July. I can't remember if I knew that he'd been battling colon cancer. Recently they discovered it had invaded his body to an alarming degree. It was everywhere. He went quickly. I only heard about through the grapevine this past weekend. He'd been dead for 3 days.

At the funeral home the room was packed when we showed up and apparently Catholics need to say 1,000,001 Hail Maries at such an event. I stood in the back of the packed room for an eternity as the crowd mumbled in unison. Finally, the crowd broke up and it was possible to move through out the room. Oh, and I didn't realize it would be an open casket! He didn't look real. He looked like a wax figure - his hands, the thin face, and the make up. I wasn't prepared.

The family thanked us for coming. Reb and I bumped into childhood acquaintances, old friends, and familiar faces. Wouldn't you know it several people even offered us condolences on the death of our Mother. Out in the parking lot a woman approached us yet again to chat us up about Mom. She got a little emotional. This has been a strange day.

Ugh!

Lazy Saturday morning spent checking my email, listening to CHIRP Radio, reading a book, and dreading my night shift that looms ahead in a few hours. I meant to put in my notice weeks ago. I'm back to being a salaried employee at the school, and working part time at a Speech Therapy office during the week so I don't really need the low-paying, highly aggravating serving job, you know?

I'm a big believer in the bullshit to money ratio! If there's a high level of bullshit to deal with at a job then there should be a comparably high amount of money to be made whilst dealing with said bullshit. Needless to say this has not been the case. The $50-$60 that I make on average at the restaurant is not worth my time. This will be my last shift.

Has It Been 8 Years?

The answer is Yes! It has been 8 years to the day, Mother's Day, that I found out that my mother had been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. Luckily I had 7 more Mother's Days with her in my life. Today is the 1st one since she passed away last July. It hasn't been an easy weekend... or year for that matter.

I'm not sure how this grieving process is supposed to work. It's been 10 months and I miss her everyday. I'm pretty sure that is normal. Somedays I obviously miss her more than others. Today I really miss her.

A day to honor and appreciate mothers and I no longer have mine in my life to give a card to, hug, or even just call to chat with her. She loved the cards - I often gave her 2; a serious one and one that would make her laugh. I was even tempted to buy a card this year just because. I didn't.

Sara and I drove to Reston, VA yesterday to take part in the 8th Annual Northern Virginia Race & Walk To "Break the Silence" On Ovarian Cancer. It was beautiful day for the event. It rained early on before the race but then cleared up in time for the event. Several years ago this was the 1st Cancer Walk that we did with Mom, and it's still a day I remember very fondly. I thought it appropriate that Sara and I honor my mother on this weekend by walking in her honor.

I enjoy the various Cancer Walks that we participate in. They're often events that we do with our family. This particular event is one that is important to me. Yesterday it was just Sara and I. We both felt Mom's absence, but were warmed by our memories of her as the sun shone down on the multitude of people walking for the cause. I will hope to continue this Mother's Day tradition for as long as we are able to take part. It helps me.

Happy Free Comic Day!

I heard the same joke, if you can call it that - maybe it's more of a witticism, 6 different times in the space of a half an hour. Apparently,in addition to the free comics and sale, there were Storm Troopers, a la Star Wars, making an appearance at the comic book store. They'd left a few hours earlier because of the heat and their costumes. 6 separate times someone said something to the effect of, 'It's so much hotter than this on Tatooine!' or 'Well, they'd never be able to hack it on Tattoine!' I guess it's a true statement...

It's been a good day. Got some free comics with the niece and nephew, went to the playground, walked around Naptown, ate out at the Sly Fox, got some soft serve, cleaned some soft serve off of the niece and nephew and just got home to crack open a beer and relax out on the porch with my pooch.