Best Week Ever

I’ve never watched “Best Week Ever” on VH1, but if the name can be taken the least bit literally, then it certainly applies. Here’s a brief summary:

-Tuesday: I sponsored the Independent Film Watchers Kick-Off screening. We watched “Kontroll,” which I had meant to see while it was on the film festival circuit last spring, but never got around to. It was really good. More importantly, however, I got over 50 people to show up to an obscure Hungarian flick. Afterwards, several people came up to me and personally thanked me. No one (myself included) seemed to understand the film, but everyone liked it.

-Wednesday: Hanna and I met for lunch at the Sunroom Cafe. I intended to ask her about Norway, she intended to help me brainstorm a screenplay-- neither occurred. Instead, we spent half an hour talking about her deep-seeded (pun intended) phobia of fruit. Apparently, as a three year old, her parents unknowingly sent her to an abusive babysitter who in addition to torturing the children, would tell three-year-old Hanna that if she ate fruit, it would kill her. She hasn’t touched it since. Not even fruit juice. This makes me sad. I wanted to feed her raspberries. She said she’d rather eat tarantulas. We made a pact to set up a strict regime of classical conditioning during the semester. She also told me that I seemed more “together” then she’s ever seen me before. After what a wreck of a human being I was last semester, that’s a compliment I’m more than glad to take. Later that day, I received an e-mail from her thanking me for being “such a gentleman.” Apparently, the criteria for chivalry has lessened in recent years. Buy a girl lunch and open a few doors and suddenly you’re Don Quixote. Who knew?

-Wednesday Evening: 11:30pm: I still didn’t have an idea for my screenplay concept, which, coincidentally, was due the following morning. At 11:30pm, however, I ran into Carolyn in the library, who told me a true story about a friend of a friend. An hour later, I’d written my concept. It reads as follows:

THE DOGSITTER

The Dogsitter is a pitch black comedy that tells the story of Emily, who after being hired by her favorite professor to dog-sit at his Chicago home over Thanksgiving break, puts off her responsibilities to party with her friends. Arriving at the house two days later than agreed to, she discovers that the dog is dead, and, having lost her professor’s contact information, calls the veterinarian, who informs her that the dog should be taken care of immediately, but that in-home pick-up of the body will cost an additional $500. Short on money, she shoves the corpse into the only receptacle she can find—an old suitcase—then journeys on the El with dead dog in tow, where she is befriended by a stranger who helps her carry the suitcase, telling him when asked that it is full of stereo equipment. When the man gets off at her stop, offering to carry the suitcase for her, Emily happily agrees, then watches in horror as he takes off in a taxi with the suitcase, believing he has stolen stereo equipment. Faced with the daunting prospect of telling her professor the truth and left with only twenty-four hours to rectify the situation, Emily has no choice but to locate the body.


-Thursday: My screenplay pitch was the best received in the class. My professor who is typically short on compliments kept telling me he found it deeply disturbing, as he is in love with his cats and has students watch them from time to time when he leaves town. Moreover, as my initial synopsis is already fleshed out, I can essentially do some “paint-by-numbers” writing (in terms of plot), allowing me to relax and enjoy the class much more this semester.

-Thursday Night: Carolyn and I ditched the Law Library early and went to Neils where we drank Spotted Cow and Whiskey & Coke before heading to the Terrace for the Seu Jorge concert. The music, while repetitive after awhile, was really lively, and provided for some great dancing. In addition, I enjoyed it all the more considering that I’d never previously gone out on a Thursday night.

-Today: I got paid $9.25/hr to sit on my ass and do homework at work. Afterwards, I met up with Casem, Mike, and Melissa and filmed our group’s 1-minute silent film. We decided on the scenario concept I’d come up with last week. In addition, I’d planned some rhythmic choreography while pissing around at work. I anticipated the project being a pain in the ass, taking forever to get right. As it was, I had a blast, everyone was a lot of fun to work with, the film came out great, and we were done after an hour. Fuck yes!

Afterwards, I checked my voicemail. Danielle called to say that last night she dreamed that I became a hugely-successful film director and was walking down the red carpet at one of my premieres arm-in-arm with a gorgeous redhead.

Five minutes later, Cressida called to invite me to attend a contemporary film lecture by David Bordwell (nationally renowned film scholar) this weekend.

Then, my new coworker, Aaron, called to invite me to see “Lord of War” with him tonight, as I’m reviewing it for the Cardinal and he’s reviewing it for the Herald. As such, I no longer have to take public transport to the theater. Yay!

Also, out of the blue, Corey invited me to a party tomorrow night that sounds like it’s going to involve a lot of good alcohol and a lot of my best friends from Bradley.

Following that, I got an e-mail from my Com Arts advisor informing me that they’re distributing free tickets for a pre-screening of “Everything is Illuminated” next week, which has been my most anticipated film of the season since I saw the trailer two months ago.

After that, Neil told me that he’d pilfered several tickets for the pre-release screening of Tim Burton’s “The Corpse Bride” next week, and offered me one.

Jesus, that’s really dense. I always promised I’d never become one of those people who used LJ to chronicle each and every mundane detail of his daily life, but I can’t help it today. I’m struck by my good fortune. I feel the need to write it down, to catalogue it, to make it tangible.

-All Week Long: I’ve had a chance to hit up the SERF and/or run 4 out of 5 days this week, which is more than I did last semester combined. In addition, I’ve established this beautiful route along the shore of Monona. Also, running = endorphins = more happiness.

In addition, after sending out my e-mail plea to nearly 200 people to send me story/screenplay ideas, I received nearly 25 responses throughout the course of the week. Some of them were useless (for instance, Neil wrote: “sometimes I eat poop”), but one girl I don’t even know went so far as to type me out a five page story chronicling a vision quest she took in North Dakota. I love stories and often find it one of the most interesting and intimate ways of connecting with other people.

I love my ipod. Never before have I ever been so madly in love with an inanimate object. Funny, too, as I never would have purchased one had I not gotten the $180 rebate for an ipod with my ibook. Suddenly, I’m hyper-aware of everyone else on the sidewalk sporting white headphones. I want to stop each and every one of them and shout: “You! You know what I’m feeling right now! You know that life is a music video, that people enter and exit on cues, that foot falls were meant to happen on the beat. You can feel the rhythm. You and I are separately engaging in a mutual experience as I speak! Isn’t this beautiful? Can you hear it? Can you feel it?” Perhaps it’s because I’ve wanted my life to be a “Real World” episode since the age of 10, but it’s so wonderful to be able to have a library of mood music present at every moment, to have a volume dimmer at hand should I feel the need to engage in voice-over narration. I finally have my own soundtrack. Life is good.

I also like my beard.

In short, this is, in fact, the best week ever. At this rate, I’ll probably win the lottery, get laid, and get commissioned by a major studio to direct a feature length film by the time the week’s out.