Pilot Season

Pilot season sucks sometimes. New scripts are fun and cool, but also lame and discouraging when you see the same people making them year after year even if they're unoriginal.

And work-wise, its a pain because I spend all day making, or trying to make, phone calls to people who either don't want to be reached, can't help me, or don't want to help. If I sometimes manage to do the nigh impossible and get someone on the phone I don't get a congrats either. All I do is give justification that "see, it works sometimes" for every other time I'm told to go on some wild goose chase. Very frustrating.

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Need to get in a post for December

I haven't posted in a while. I guess I've been focused on other things. I was going to say that I was being lazy, but then I realized all the stuff that's been happening this month, and letting an anonymous blog fall by the wayside is okay.

I'm about to go pick up Writress from the airport after being apart for about 10 days. We're both going crazy, and methinks the next day or so will be busy with happy relaxing times in our apartment, so I need to take this opportunity to say farewell to 2010.

I became more of an adult this year with my job, with my writing, and most importantly with my relationship with Writress. Last year we were just some wannabe writers who dated and had lots of sleepovers. Now we're living together in a very adult and mature relationship, and we're ridiculously happy.

So in short, 2010 was a good year for me. I think we can make 2011 even better.

Holidays break rhythm

I was writing at a pretty steady clip before the holidays. My life was structured such that on nights I didn't have to go meet someone for drinks or something like that I was generally doing something productive writing-wise.

Every time a holiday comes up I always think, "Great, I'll be able to use that extra day off on Friday to sit down and hammer out the next act of my pilot" or something along those lines.

It never happens.

I think it might be that I lived at school during the week starting in 10th grade, so after that I never really associated home with getting work done. And especially since my parents moved to Cape Cod, I really don't associate the new house with anything other than hanging out with my siblings and watching movies.

So needless to say, this was not a productive Thanksgiving break for me. I had hoped to make up for it a bit last night, but after Writress and I watched an episode that was about to expire on hulu I laid down on the couch for a second, and literally lost all energy do do anything. I couldn't even read a book more than two pages. I think it was just the travel catching up with me. Hopefully I'll be in a better position to be productive tonight. We'll see what happens.

It just goes to show how easy it is to NOT write. Especially if you have an entire life asking for your time that would be enough for a lot of people who never consider pursuing a side career.

Made it to Thanksgiving

Technically I still have an hour and forty-five minutes to go, but my bosses are gone for the night. I don't have to come into work tomorrow, and I'll be flying out tomorrow morning to head back to Boston.

I'm hoping things aren't too crazy at the airport with all the body scan/pat down issues. It's hard to get a clear idea of what's going on from the media, who make it sound like you either go through a scanner than uploads a picture of you to Larry Flynt's desktop or you get a full cavity search by Zed from Pulp Fiction.

I'll give myself some extra time just to be on the safe side like I always do. I got stuck with a middle seat since I bought my tickets last minute, but at least I won't be needing to sleep like with the redeye flights. Maybe that will help prevent me from getting sick, who knows.

There's a fair amount for me to do when I'm back home. I need to write an act of my pilot, revise the comedy pilot I was working on, see friends from high school, see a friend who just moved back to Boston from LA, and have a movie watching marathon with my sister. These are all enjoyable things, but still, there's only so much time.

Then it's back to LA. I get through three tiring weeks, then I get an even longer break. And this year I'll be planning on coming back to LA before New Year's Eve, so I can spend that with my girlfriend. It will be the first time I've ever been able to spend New Year's with a significant other. Every other year I've either had a girlfriend in a different state/country, or I've been single and didn't have a romantic prospect when the clock struck 12 (though one year I made out with a girl later in the night, so I rang in Central Time's new year with someone).

Thanksgiving will also mark exactly a year and a half that Writress and I have been dating. She still makes me happy, and I don't see that changing.

So this year, I'm thankful to have people in my life that make me happy. When just spending time with someone is enough to put you in a good mood, it's pretty easy to be content.

Encouraged to do impossible and/or evil things

Yesterday my boss asked me to call up an assistant in New York (that I almost never speak with) to get a number to reach a writer. I called, was pleasant and nice, and was told that this writer doesn't have an office or an assistant. Like many in the entertainment industry today, this writer didn't need those things. He was able to work from home off of his personal email and cell phone until a production office would get set up. The only possible number to reach this person on was the cell phone, which this assistant wasn't even sure she had.

In the event somebody does have a cell phone number, they REALLY aren't supposed to give that kind of thing out without prior permission. This is the kind of thing assistants get fired for easily.

So when this assistant told me that she didn't have a number she could release, I was fine with that. I thanked her for her time, and hung up.

This morning I was telling my boss that this writer was only working off a cell, and would be difficult to get in touch with. He lectures me that I need to get "better at sweet talking people to give me things."

This isn't a matter of negotiations. This is an assistant across the country that I've never met before, and never even spoken with before. She has no personal connection to me, and I have no leverage over her. I have nothing that she wants. She has nothing to gain from giving me this information, no matter how charming I am. And if she did give it to me, she could be fired.

So I'm being encouraged to do something that is either impossible or evil. Either there's no way she'll give me the number without permission no matter what I say, or I somehow come up with some way to pressure her into risking her job.

It's especially hypocritical when I'm told very often not to even give the reason we're calling someone over the phone. If I'm expected to never give out information of any kind, why should everyone I speak with give me all kinds of confidential information? No amount of flirting skills over the phone could do that.

Holidays: Spend them together or apart?

I just bought my tickets to go back to Boston for Thanksgiving, but for a while there I was a bit worried that they'd be too expensive, and I wouldn't be able to do it (Thanks Virgin America, you're awesome). When I thought I might not go back, I had an offer from Writress's family to spend Thanksgiving with them.

They understood why I declined, but they still like me. It did call into question what holiday protocol will be in years to come.

Right now, I think that Writress and I are going to our respective families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and spending New Year's Eve together in LA. But pretty soon we're gonna be at that point where it might be weird spending holidays apart. We're going to have to figure out how to decide whose home to go to.

I figure we'll eventually go one of a few different ways:

1) We alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas each family every year. One side gets more presents and days off, but if we switch every year it stays fair.

2) We spend Christmas with my family since it's harder to travel to the East Coast, and Thanksgiving with her family in Colorado. There would also be an understanding that there would be at least one additional trip to Colorado (perhaps for 4th of July again) since it's just a two hour flight with only a one hour time change, so long weekends are easy to travel.

3) We start selling pilots, get rich, and host both holidays at our awesome house in California. Or our schedule is flexible enough and we have enough money to travel back and forth all over the place during each holiday season.

If only everyone lived in the same city, or at least the same time zone, things would be easier. But for now, we're sticking with the same system we've been using since college. Holiday comes up, and we go home.

P.S. I've changed my blogger name from "he who rants" to "finds life hilarious." I think that since I'm so happy at home I have less reason to rant on here. I'd rather keep things positive.

Calendar stress

It's that time of year again where looking at my calendar becomes stressful.

I've started writing actual pages of my fantasy pilot, and I'm on track to get it done on time, but it's tough when other aspects of my life like setting drinks with other assistants for work start to invade into my writing time.

Suddenly that "Christmas is approaching" feeling starts to creep in, and I become acutely aware of just how many nights I have between now and then, especially as I see them fill up.

The things I want to do out of work really would be enough to occupy someone as a full time job. At least I know I'm not being idle.

Haven't posted in a month

My boss suddenly started to get weird and snoop around at browsing histories in the office, so I haven't been able to post here as often (not that it ever kept me from getting work done before).

Here's what's new:

I met that mentor. He was a nice guy. Finally had lunch with him the other day and he really liked my writing. He had some helpful notes, but said that I was clearly a good writer and should be working in a room somewhere. I agreed. Hopefully he knows some agents that would be willing to sign on young writing talent.

I've written a twenty page outline for my fantasy pilot. It's coming along really well. It really feels with each revision and new idea that I'm not making something up, it's like I'm an archeologist uncovering something that's been buried in the desert. It all exists, I just won't see it all until I've finished digging and brushing things off.

Writress is loving her new job. It sounds like they're cool people, and I'd love to meet them too. Hopefully the show won't get canceled. With her working through writers' rooms being her charming self and me making connections through mentors, it wouldn't be inconceivable that eventually we could get work as a writing team together.

Halloween is this weekend, but some people started having parties last weekend. Our costume idea was a hit, so we're going to use it again. It involved me putting a temporary tattoo of a pentagram made of skulls on my neck. For some reason, a lot of people thought it was real. This is hilarious, because no way in hell could I pull that kind of thing off in real life.

Meeting a mentor tonight

My college alumni group is starting up a new mentorship program where they match established Hollywood people with those who are just starting out their careers. I was hoping to get matched with a writer, but the best they could do was a former development exec from a cable network. While it's not perfect, maybe he can help point me in the right direction for what to do when I have some finished work ready to send out.

The first meeting is tonight. They're having a meet and greet for all the mentors and mentees.

Writress is feeling better, and is now mostly concerned with needing work. Her show got its pickup for the new season, but she hasn't heard when it's starting. In the meantime I was able to find a posting for her about a similar job on a show we really like, staffed by some of our favorite writers. She has an interview with the showrunner on Monday, so fingers crossed on multiple fronts.

We're having a party this weekend to celebrate her birthday and our new apartment. It's nothing crazy, as a big party wouldn't fit in our place, but it should be fun.

It's getting to be busy enough now that I wish there was more time in the day. I have my day job, which is enough to leave me wanting to relax at the end of the day even if it wasn't too stressful. My job is also encouraging me to set more drinks meetings with other assistants. I've got two writing groups that need me to make deadlines and provide notes to other writers. New shows are starting again, and I need to stay current. There are older shows that I want to watch and study, video games I want to play, and friends I want to see. Basically, there's more than enough to keep me busy even if I didn't have a day job, and a lot of the time I just want to sleep at the end of the day.

I think the best thing for me would be to try to do one thing at a time and keep a schedule, and hopefully sooner rather than later I'll be staffed on a show in which the showrunner is the type that doesn't like keeping writers there after 6. At which point I'll find a new life goal to strive for, namely BEING a showrunner who doesn't need to keep writers past 6.

Have a new logline, and making up rules of the world

My new writing module through my alumni network has started up again. I'll be writing a new pilot rather than spending months revisiting something I wrote already.

The seeds of the idea are still growing in my mind, but so far it all seems to fit. I went over it with my other group on Sunday, and settled on the logline. No, I will not be posting it here.

It's in the fantasy genre. There is the worry that people will be prematurely dismissive about this kind of script, but I decided I don't care about that. If I write this well and make it interesting for the audience they won't care as much what genre it is. My last one hour pilot was about video gamers, and people who didn't play games still read and enjoyed that script.

These kinds of worlds get my imagination going, and you can have high stakes, and define the rules of your world. Rather than spending months researching something that already exists and trying to fit a script around that, I'm making up rules of a world as I go and based on my needs. As long as I'm consistent, I don't think that's cheating. What I hate more is when somebody knowingly changes facts about a real life situation in order to make it work for their story.

Here's an example from a show I love: The West Wing. I watched that show on DVD in college, and loved it. I listened to all the commentaries, I studied it. I'm rewatching it with Writress, and while it's still an amazing show, I think more like a writer now than I did when I was 21. [SPOIELR ALERT] In the third season finale we see a Secret Service agent stop an armed robbery, but then get shot by another gunman. The first time I saw it I was caught up in the story and the emotions of the characters. This time I knew it was coming, and I realized how ridiculous it was. This wasn't a second gunman hiding with a sniper rifle in the rafters. This was just some hoodlum standing behind an aisle in a corner grocery store. The only reason the Secret Service Agent dies is that after subduing the first gunman, he holsters his gun and makes a joke with the clerk without checking the rest of the scene. He doesn't ask if there was more than one guy. He just blindly stumbles around this crime scene with no regard for any possible threats.

I could maybe see a rookie cop make that mistake. But this was a Secret Service agent. He went through the Army, was a cop, and finally became one of the President's security detail. These guys are paid to be paranoid and check out any possible threat wherever they are, by instinct. There's no way that kind of guy would let some dumb kid get the jump on him like that.

That was a situation in which the logic of the world was broken for the sake of the plot, and so Aaron Sorkin could once more make his favorite point about how guns are evil, even for people like cops who are trained to use them.

Breaks from logic cheapen a world, and make it less real. You lose the illusion. For me the best stories are ones where you can be left believing in the back of your mind that somewhere, somehow, sometime, this could be real. Jerking your story and the rules of the world around just to make things easier for yourself is like breaking the laws of physics. It makes things just that much more impossible, and less real.

So while I create my own fantasy kingdom, I won't have to spend hours looking up the actual laws and traditions concerning coronations in 14th century Britain. I can make those up on my own. But what I do make up has to seem logical and plausible enough that for an hour a week viewers can curl of on their couch and pretend that this place of adventure is real.

Writress is still feeling sick

While we were visiting my family on Cape Cod (which could not have gone better by the way, they all loved her) Writress started getting a headache, and it started feeling like I was sleeping with a space heater. We tried to take it easy, relax, and get a lot of fluids into her, but when we got back to LA she was still feeling feverish and lousy. She went to see a doctor on Monday who said she had bronchitis and gave her a prescription.

She's been trying to take it easy all week, but it was still pretty busy because her sister came on a last minute visit to see a show at the Hollywood Bowl, and her Dad was also in town for a couple days.

One of the ways I can tell my family likes her is this. Not only have they been asking about how she's doing when I call home, this morning while I was at work I got a text from Writress reading: "Your mom just called to see how I was feeling : )". I guess my dad and sister had informed my mom that she was still sick, and she got all maternal and called our apartment to check up on her. They really see her as part of the family now.

And they should. I think they can tell how serious I am about her. It's been a bit quiet at work this week and I've even started browsing around on a website called theplunge.com which is a guy's answer to what they call "wedding porn" like TheKnot. Honestly, it's really just down to me figuring out the engagement ring stuff and figuring out when to propose. This girl has been unable to do anything all week but lay there feverish, and I still want to spend all my free time with her.

Right now her plan for the weekend is to fly out tomorrow morning to see her parents and grandparents for a couple days, but I'm trying to convince her to stay put if she still doesn't feel well. Here's hoping we get to just relax together for a couple days. Otherwise it'll be my first two days alone in the apartment, which will be weird.

An annoyance

Life is pretty good for me now. Things are great living with Writress. She met my whole family back east and everyone got along great. Now that I'm paying less rent I'm starting to save some more money.

But there was one thing that happened in the past week that I found to be somewhat ridiculous. I was flipping through things that had been posted on various twitter feeds while I was gone, including one for my college classmates. I don't follow most individuals on the list, but I look at the full list from time to time to get a sense of where everyone is. One of the things I saw was that my CollegeEx had posted something about being happy she'd done a friend purge on facebook because for the first time in a while there was nothing in her newsfeed that pissed her off. I checked, and sure enough she'd de-friended me. Again.

The first time she did it was a few months after we graduated, which was about 8 or 9 months after we'd broken up. It was a bit immature of her, but we had dated for three and a half years and she took the breakup badly so I can understand why she'd want to do that. Then two years ago, we got back in touch and re-friended. We weren't best buddies or anything, but it was nice that we could be cordial and stay in touch. I think part of why she felt secure enough to do that was that unbeknownst to me she was in a serious relationship with another of our friends from school. As I posted on this blog previously, I found out that they were dating when they posted pictures of the night they got engaged.

We've exchanged messages at random times and birthdays, and when they got married earlier this summer I mailed them a card saying congratulations. I didn't expect an invite, but I was hoping that over the years we could continue to be friendly.

And now, she's defriended me. One of our mutual friends told me that he didn't think it was anything personal about me or what I was posting, but I don't buy it. There may have been something else that prompted it, but she still did it to me. One of the people that's still on her list is one of my best friends that I know for a fact she hasn't spoken with since we dated, so I know it's not just one of those "haven't talked to this person in months" kind of purges. It was a targeted effort to remove things that upset her from her facebook newsfeed.

I looked at what I had been posting a few days prior to this purging, and there were a lot of pictures of Writress and I. Some were of us moving into the new apartment, others were of all of us during the visit to see my family. And there was also a series of pictures from when I gave Writress a tour of my old college hangouts.

It's been a long time since I spoke with CollegeEx in person or over the phone, but I still know her as a person well enough to picture what happened. She probably got stressed out, initially due to something work related. She was always very susceptible to getting stressed out to a point that it hindered her ability to get things done. Something prompts her to start a purging, and pictures of me living happily with someone else were enough to get her angry with me.

So four and a half years after our college relationship ended, she's still acting like a middle school girl about it. She held on just long enough for me to see evidence of her getting married to one of our friends in a room full of the rest of our friends. I wasn't upset or angry, rather I genuinely wished her well. And once that was over with she was unable to remain friendly and cordial with me.

Maybe she didn't intend for me to even realize I'd been de-friended. Or maybe she did want to hurt me in some juvenile way. I'm not hurt though. I'm annoyed that things seemed to have reverted to middle school drama when I was hoping to remain friends, but I'm not hurt. Really this childish behavior just reinforces the fact that I'm incredibly happy that I broke up with her rather than latch myself onto her for the rest of my life. I had a lot of great experiences with all sorts of women after we broke up. Enough things have happened in my life that I can say with confidence and without regret that Writress is the right person for me.

I'll continue to email CollegeEx on her birthday as I always have, but not try and initiate anything other than that. If I end up going to my 5 year reunion and see her, great. If not, I don't care. All that's left is a curiosity to see how she'll react when I eventually propose to Writress. Will she ignore me or act petty in some way? Or will she do what I did and wish me well? I guess only time will tell but it'll be interesting to find out.

Thinking of a new question to answer

My writing group is starting back up again next week, which means it's time for me to write a new pilot.

I have no idea what I'm going to write.

But rather than approach something by saying "I want this element" or "wouldn't it be fun if..." I'm trying to think of an overall question or theme to address with the story.

The last one hour pilot I wrote addressed the theme of identity in an online anonymous world. It was about self-discovery. The reason the fun story elements worked is that they were built from that foundation.

So now I'm trying to think of a question or theme that I really want to address. I'm pondering the things I rant about all the time, and trying to evaluate what's really important to me.

For example, one idea that I've been kicking around has to do with the nature of freedom. By following rules and expectations we don't have the ability to make any real choices on our own, so in a way the only way to be free is to do something completely unexpected and reckless. For me that was moving to LA. I don't want to write a pilot about that though. Rather, I might want to turn that question towards something else that relates to the theme but also makes good TV. I also don't want to get bogged down with research. I much prefer being able to make everything up, so that's why I don't want to write a show right now set in some real environment, i.e. an ad agency in the 1960's or a school in Texas or the NSA. I could set it in a fantasy type kingdom, that way there's a world that is understandable and accessible but I still have license to do whatever I want with it.

It's still all up in the air though. I'll update once I know more.

Something that annoys me about "How I got started" stories

As an aspiring writer, I from time to time go to panels or Q&A's with more established writers to learn things. Inevitably, someone asks the writer to tell their story of how they became a writer.

Here's how it always goes. Start with something humble. For example, "I had just moved to LA and didn't know anyone, so I was sleeping in my car parked on a random cul-de-sac in the valley." or "I had spent 6 years being a lawyer, and decided that wasn't what I wanted to do anymore, so I gave writing a shot."

That part we all get. We're assistants, waiters, caterers, or any other random peon job that woefully attempts to pay the bills while we try writing. So we all perk up to listen to the next bit, to find out how they escaped from peon-land and into the world of "wow I get paid to do this, awesome."

Here's how the stories always continue, "And then I got my agent, and he started sending me out on meetings, and I met with [some showrunner we all want to work with] and they brought me on as a staff writer."

It always skips to the "and then I got my agent" part. With no explanation. We all get that once you have CAA or WME or some agency like that you're going to get meetings. And if you're good, those meetings will eventually turn into jobs. That's not the grand mystery we came to the panel to discover.

I wish they would tell us the actual stories of just how they got representation in the first place, because that's the hurdle that we all keep getting stuck behind as we toil in obscurity. That's why I get 5 random phone calls and 6 query letters a day from wannabe writers somewhere in middle America who think that all they need to become Charlie Kaufman overnight is to open the yellow pages and start calling numbers listed under "agency."

So if anyone who reads this is a writer who will speak at a panel for aspiring writers, tell us the REAL story. Was it the one query letter that got through? Doubtful. More likely it's that you met an agent at a party or something and hit it off. Or someone owed you a favor for helping them move a sofa/bedroom set/dead body from their house. Or you were sleeping with somebody who was an agent/worked for an agent/was also sleeping with an agent.

What it could also be is that most agents will look at other writers one of their writer clients say to look at. Maybe that's how everyone gets their agent. And maybe that's the reason writers don't talk about that part, because then every aspiring writer will start pestering THEM with the query letters and phone calls to try to bring their "really original idea" to their agent.

Right now we're at a stage where the whole industry doesn't know what's coming next. Everyone in power cut their teeth during the mid 90's "must see tv" era or earlier. They don't know what to make of new media, though smart companies are making deals with Netflix. Business as usual is still good enough business that nobody needs to look ahead. And until they do start looking ahead, it's going to be tough for the young aspiring writers. In the meanwhile, we just have to keep at it I suppose.

Shacked up

It's been a busy week with no internet yet at the new apartment, so I haven't been able to post yet about life post-moving in with Writress.

In short, it's great.

It's been really fun setting the place up, and since Writress is on hiatus from her show she's been home all day doing domestic stuff. I've even been able to come home for lunch a couple days this week since my commute is only about 10 minutes now. She did all that stuff I never would have thought to do like putting contact paper in all the drawers and getting a nice looking shower curtain thing to go outside the curtain liner I already had.

It feels good having all our stuff together. The way we always hung out at my old place all the time it was practically like we were living together anyway, so it's almost easier having none of the hassle involved in shuttling between our apartments. I keep really looking forward to going home at the end of the day.

This weekend will be busy, but it'll also be really nice as the first real weekend in our new place. Then I only have one more week of work before we go back to Cape Cod for two weeks, and I REALLY can't wait for that.

Selling my girlfriend's bed to an ex

There hasn't been much in the way of spare blogging time lately. I'm moving this weekend.

Writress already has all her stuff basically packed up. She's bringing some of it over to my place tonight so we'll be able to drop it off tomorrow once we have our keys. She doesn't have too much furniture, so I think we'll be able to take her stuff and my stuff over in one trip.

We decided to take my bed to the new apartment. Writress's bed was given to her by a friend, who said she should just sell it rather than deal with the expense/hassle of giving it back. So using craigslist we tried to find someone, with no luck. Then I posted on Facebook about it. I got one response. It was a girl I used to go out with.

My first summer in LA I dated a girl, let's call her Boo. She was interning out her before her final year of college, so it was meant to be a fun summer thing. I was still in my post-CollegeGirlfriend phase and wasn't looking for anything too serious. Boo got very into me, and it became more of a relationship than either of us anticipated, but before things progressed too much she went back to school. She still had interest in getting back together when she got out of school, but she only spent a couple weeks out her after she graduated (during which time I made a point not to hook up with her and restart the cycle) before she went overseas for the next year or so.

When she finally got back to LA, I was dating Writress already. So Boo and I have seen each other a few times since then, and she even came to my birthday beer tasting and there was no drama. Nevertheless, I tried to make an effort not to rub my new relationship in her face.

So the reason Boo responded about the bed is that she's looking to move in a month, and wants a new bed. She asked me if it was my mattress, thinking it would be funny since she helped me pick it out during that summer we were dating and hooking up all the time. When she heard that it was Writress's and not mine, she still wanted it. So rather than getting the bed she once had sex with me on, she's getting the bed that I've had sex with another girl on.

A friend of ours had already told her that I was moving in with Writress, so luckily I was spared any awkwardness there. It seems like Boo is truly over me at this point, and for that I'm glad because she's a very nice girl and it would be nice to be able to see her without worrying that I was giving her the wrong impression in some way.

We're dropping the bed at her place before loading up the truck with all my stuff. We'll see if it's awkward, but I'm thinking it won't be. I think that this is good, and maybe I can finally get to the point that I can genuinely remain friends with someone I've slept with. Not that I'm on bad terms with exes, we just don't hang out ever or talk much.

But likely the next time I post on this blog it will not only be August, but I will officially be cohabitating with my girlfriend. Stay tuned for what follows.

Moving, and car accidents

About a week ago I was driving home from work when a high school kid drove into moving traffic trying to cross the street. Nobody was hurt luckily, but while there was only superficial damage to his bumper, he hit my car square in the front driver's side tire. It messed up my fenders, door, suspension, and a bunch of other stuff. I know I was not at fault, and I have the other driver and two insurance companies backing me up on that. I've been driving around in a rental car, and now have to deal with body shop guys who want money in advance, and it's a whole pain in the ass situation.

But in happy news, Writress and I found our apartment. We're moving in August 1st. We'll have a couple weeks to settle in, then we're both flying back to Boston to spend two weeks with my family. Despite the face that I've met her entire family multiple times now, Writress hasn't been able to meet my parents or brother, and I'm really looking forward to showing her around the east coast.

The new apartment is a bit on the cozy side, but it seems like a nice building full of fun people. There's no pool or fitness center, but since I don't really use those in my own building, I think I'm better off just not paying for them in my rent. It's right off the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, with lots of cool stuff nearby including a cool comic show that I've never been in before this past weekend. And luckily we didn't even need to pay for WestSideRentals or anything like that to find the place. We just took a day to drive around looking for buildings with "NOW LEASING" signs. If they didn't answer the phone on a Saturday, we took it as a sign from the gods that it wasn't meant to be.

The actual moving process will probably be a pain with renting trucks and moving furniture, and trying to get all the stuff that we need to live on. For example, neither of us has a set of dishes, since roommates provided that in the past. All of that will be somewhat time consuming and expensive I bet, but once we get past that point I think we'll both be able to save some money since we're each paying less rent than we were previously.

Once we're moved in, I'm not nervous at all. I think it's just going to be really fun living with a best friend I can share a bed with. Every day will have the freedom of "having the place all to ourselves." So hopefully I can get through the logistically tricky moving part, and on to the fun part.

After that, we can just enjoy ourselves while working towards the next step.

Day jobs

Nobody wants to be that cliche who claims to be an actor/writer/director/poet/god knows what when their real job has just been working the same random retail or restaurant job for 10 years. In some parts of the country there are career waiters, or people who start as an underling at a retail store and then end up managing the whole thing. There is nothing wrong with that. But you don't want to be the person claiming to be something you're not, when it's obvious to everyone that it's never gonna happen.

So for writers especially, we get assistant jobs. Writress is on hiatus from her show. She has a job waiting for her when it comes back, she just hasn't heard if it's been picked up for another season yet. She doesn't want to burn through all her savings, but she wants to have some time to write (which she didn't have when working 14 hour days on the show) and she wants to be able to come back to Boston with me when I have two weeks off in August. Plus, some apartments might have issue with renting to us if one of us is unemployed.

Studio temp places seem to put her info in a database, but she's not sure if she can get enough/any work through that. She doesn't want to apply for jobs that want a one year commitment, because she may be going back to her old job in September or October.

I suggested that she just get a regular summer job working at a store or something. Since she has her show likely coming back, it's not like she'll inadvertently become a career retail worker at Pottery Barn. As it is now, she can have flexible hours to write, get a bit of money, not have the stress, and possibly even get an employee discount on things she might want. Plus, it's a good way to meet some people who aren't necessarily entertainment industry, and therefore gain some useful insight or character inspiration.

So really, until we start getting paid to write, there is no one right way to go about doing things. I think you need to just take stock of your specific situation, and make the best decision from there. At the moment for Writress, the best thing she could do to help further her writing career may be to get a job that has nothing to do with entertainment.

Fun weekend

So my weekend was pretty fun. Mostly consisted of following Writress to fun premiere events and getting free stuff, so that was pretty good.

The actual premiere was on Wednesday night, and it was a really fun night. I got to meet more of her work friends, who are great people, and get a glimpse of what I'd like to be able to have someday when I create a show.

Then Saturday morning we had a lot of fun having Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier rented out for the show. Got to play a bunch of fun carney games and go on the rollercoaster as many times as we wanted for free. Then last night was a party for the actual airing of the show at the house of one of the executive producers. It was very nice, and despite the fact that Writress and I were the youngest people there and only assistant level, the host was very gracious and spoke with us. It was nice to think that we're not as far away from making it as it sometimes seems.

On our way back from the Pier we stopped at a street in Hollywood where a friend recommended we look at an apartment. There were so many for rent signs that we ended up going into a nicer looking building, and found that they had a unit in there that could work for us that's totally in our price range. We're not going to pull the trigger on any one place until we've done more research, but it did help make things feel more real that we're starting to look at places. Later in the day we walked around my current neighborhood and wrote down more addresses and phone numbers.

August 1st is our date that we're aiming to move. Writress's roommate already has someone lined up for her place though, so if needed we could move as early as July 15th. We may wait for Writress to sign on with a Studio temping agency or something first though, since some buildings want to make sure you're employed first for the credit check. We're waiting to see if her show gets picked up, which would mean she has a job waiting for her in the fall.

Actually looking at places together doesn't scare me, it's fun and exciting. I didn't see myself doing this kind of thing until I was engaged, but honestly, I'm not worried about that. We're not quite ready to get engaged, but I love Writress and know that it's only a matter of time before I figure out everything that goes along with buying an engagement ring and proposing.

We watched a movie called TIMER on Saturday night that was about a device that gets implanted on your wrist and tells you the day you'll meet "The One" for you. Writress asked me if I would get one if they were available. I told her I didn't need one and kissed her, and wasn't bullshitting at all. In that situation you really can't say anything else, but I still meant it.

In other news, this weekend was also the wedding for my College Ex. I haven't heard from any of my friends who were there yet, but I can't help but be curious. I'm in no way jealous because I'm glad we broke up and I'm much happier with Writress, but since she was such an important part of my life for so long I can't just not care. It feels like an old friend that I lost touch with is getting married.

And so, that's what's going on in my life now. Expect more apartment hunting updates as the month goes on.

Going to a premiere tonight

A year and a half ago I got a suit, just in case I'd ever need it. Tonight I'll be wearing it for the first time. It just goes to show that there aren't many occasions in Los Angeles where you can't get in wearing a pair of jeans.

In fact, I could probably get away with not wearing the suit tonight, but I'm not going to. Tonight is the premiere for Writress's show, so we're doing the whole red carpet thing. I get to get off work an hour early (since I'll be going in an hour early one day next week) and it should be a fun evening.

Writing-wise I've been a bit lazy the last few days, partly because Writress turned me on to a trilogy of books called The Farseer Trilogy that's captured my attention. I'm nearly done with the second book, so I should come back to reality soon. I've opted not to try to apply to the ABC fellowship, partly because I know I don't have any connections for it, and partly because money is a bit tight right now with bills and my upcoming trip to see Writress's family in Colorado, so it's not worth it to pay the entrance fees. I want to also save what I can for moving costs and new stuff Writress and I will need for our apartment.

I'm really psyched to live with her. Once we're settled we'll both be able to live cheaper and happier, until we get to the point where we likely have more money than we can spend.