Adventures with Cousin Eddie

I promised myself I'd write tonight since classes were cancelled for tomorrow. Get well, Professor! I started my job as a development intern on the 11th, which was a week before school started so I could ease my way back into having to get up in the morning. It's amazing the kind of atrophying that two years of no Monday to Friday job can cause. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of last week exhausted me! It went really well, though, and I'm very happy to have turned down what was my first choice of NBC Universal for where I am at now. The people are a-typical hollywood and are actually really nice! They are also very fun and creative which makes me feel comfortable enough to ask any little thing I need to know. I was nervous to hand in my first script coverage (for those who don't know - 'coverage' is the term used for the notes/synopsis that's written after reading a screenplay.) Essentially I have to pick apart someone elses work and say what works and what doesn't. It's been an excellent learning experience for just having started. It will also be great for when I relook at my own script, and having to write three days a week has gotten my creative juices flowing so I actually want to come home and write my own stuff. It really is true for me that the more I have on my plate the more I actually get accomplished. Too much free time has been a crippler and I'm feeling more like my old confident 'I could run a small country' self.

I think the lesson for this month, or really for my life, is gratitude. I am so thankful every single day for all the amazing things God keeps bringing into my life. Everytime I turn around there is more money coming in from unexpected sources just when I need it most. I can wishlist an internship and it just appears. My class schedule magically works out to be exactly what I need. Sometimes how it all weaves together is a mystery and sometimes its blatant and wonderful to watch work.

The trip to Arizona for the holidays was pretty fantastic actually...surprisngly so since we were fully expecting a nuclear meltdown of some sort. I was just grateful not to have to make the drive to Colorado again.

Shannon came in super late Christmas Eve then we drove straight to Arizona. Since I had to be up to cook the turkey I got about 30 minutes of sleep. Dinner was a truly delightful feast and I was so happy to see a few of my most favorite cousins that I hadn't seen for years. There was alot of good conversation, alot of good teasing, and of course, visiting. That night the cousins went to see Avatar at 10:45 so by the time we were home I'd been up for over 32 hours straight. I was delirious. We had one slight bump in the weekend with our very own distant Cousin Eddie from National Lampoons. It would be rude to describe my disgust here just in case he should find his way here...but it's so very tempting. One thing is certain, there are some people that you just like right away, and there are others that have such bad, nasty energy that you loathe them immediately. This guy was the latter and what's worse is that he seems sheisty and suspicious. Anyway, the time with my family was great other than that. Shannon and I drove home Sunday and didn't do much until New Years. We spent that at a friend of a friend of a friends "Crazy Hat" Party. It was pretty ok, at least I was with my friends...at least those friends who were in town. Shan then deserted me and I spent that week getting everything in my house and life squared away in preparation for the coming crazy semester.

The house has been amazing so far. My friend Beth needed a temporary place to stay before her London move so she's been keeping me company. She came home with a supply of wine, chocolate, and potato chips the other night just when I needed it most. A fact that has only made me love her all the more. I will be sad to see her go, but glad for a couch to sleep on when I go back to London. And speaking of travelling...with the unexpected windfall I am very much being responsible and keeping it in a safe place just in case I can't find a job by the first of June. BUT there's a big part of me that keeps planning trips in my head for right after graduation. Another month in Paris would only cost me 3k, and Australia/New Zealand would cost even less. I'm only really entertaining the latter since I do really want to meet my goal of all six populated continents by the time I'm 30. I hate even thinking about the fact that my time is quickly running out! I have gotten to do so many amazing things while being unemployed the last two years, but I don't want to be greedy, so we'll have to see how it all pans out. If I get a job before graduation I'm SO there. I have penguins to see, and koalas to hug...and hobbiton to visit of course.