It kind of turned into a New Year's resolution post. Sorry.

I guess it's about time for a new post, huh? Okay.

Truth be told, I've been awfully lazy the last couple of weeks. I'm kind of ready to get back to the grind. I have that wonderful I'm-going-to-do-things-right-this-time feeling that only a new semester/quarter of school can provide (and maybe having multiple children, but I wouldn't know for sure).

The first quarter wrapped up just fine. I kind of mailed in a few of my finals, but I got all A's (though "Everyone gets an A in grad school," says Lucas). I think the most important thing is that I figured out how I have to operate to keep from being constantly stressed and be only periodically stressed. (I can have Friday and Saturday evenings off, but only Saturday afternoons if I've gotten a lot accomplished already. Sunday is always a work day.) And I can't not exercise. I exercised a total of one time this past quarter (I got lost on my way to the UCLA gym...so yeah, that bad). That's something I have to make time for in the future--for vanity's sake, sure (I do live in LA), but primarily because I think I would be much less stressed if I did. And I have to make more time for keeping up with loved ones, too. I'm sorry to everyone whom I neglected the past four months. I promise to try to be better. Basically, I just need to be more efficient in general (says the girl who has unfinished assignments due in one week and is writing a blog post-- and speaking of...)

By the way, TWO of my professors gave us work to do over the holiday. Really? So maybe in the interest of doing things right/better I should wrap this up and get back to those. Yeah? Yeah.

PS-- Thanks to everyone who's been a faithful and/or occasional reader!

(From the CC Botanical Gardens)

Finals Week

No me gusta.

(That means I don't like it.)

Guess who's going to be an intern at Fox?

Hint: It's not a trick question.

[contented sigh]

Well I am in a fantastic mood. The only school-related thing I've done all weekend was a group meeting last night that turned into a dinner party and the most fun evening I've had in a long time (me gusta a los espanoles de mi clase-- son muy divertidos). Melissa and I are going to a Christmas tree lighting tonight (with magical snowfall and Mario Lopez!). I have an interview with Fox Broadcasting tomorrow. And on Tuesday I get to go home. Let the happiness fall like man-made snow...

I LOVE grad school grades!

Seriously. No one gives out anything less than a B-. How freaking awesome is that?

And, by the way, I think a few of you (Phillip in particular) would have really enjoyed watching me in my group presentation this evening. My over-enthusiastic, control freak classmate voluntarily constructed our entire presentation and so, let's be honest, it shifted to a pretty low priority for me. Anyway, during the presentation, we came to a slide I was supposed to present that I had NEVER seen before EVER. Truly hadn't read a single word of it--didn't even know it existed. That we were behind schedule was my only saving grace in that moment. "Yes, so...umm...this slide says...some things...and...umm...you can read about it in your handout. And...uh...for the sake of time, let's just, uh, let's just keep going."

If I hadn't just gotten back a slew of good grades and positive feedback, I'd maybe be worried. But right now, I'm feeling a little invincible.

I can keep animals and people alive

Dead Plants (2010)

by Allison Avery

This one goes out to the Vets

In honor of Veterans far and wide, we don't have school on Thursday. As a result, this has been my easiest week by far (except for the paper I have due tomorrow). My Thursdays are typically pretty awful. I go to my internship half the day, then I have two classes that afternoon, the first of which is akin to being a contestant on Survivor. I spend all three of those hours in a cold sweat just waiting for someone to tell me I've been kicked off the island (or that everything I've just said is wrong, which has happened). The second is terrible only because this woman gives us an ungodly amount of work to do (read=I don't sleep a lot on Wednesday nights).

Anyway. It's amazing how much less productive I am when I don't have 439579348 things to do. But I'm enjoying the breathing room.

It's so intense.

Pictures are more entertaining than words, right?

BOO

1. I have two mid-term projects due at the beginning of this week. For the first, I have to develop a franchise based on a comic book character. This is what I chose:

Kind of really ridiculous, huh?

The second (due Tuesday) is a 1/2-hr comedy series that I have to pitch to my class of 30 and a panel of industry professionals. Holy crap. I think I'm going with my IT idea (to be titled 2000 because that's the help desk extension in the show), but I'm not totally sure just yet. I'll worry about that once I'm done developing my absurd cowboy.

2. I love finding new music. My latest discovery is Olafur Arnalds. There's no singing, it's all instrumental, which will boot out a lot of you right there. If you're curious, check out the song 3055.

3. If I can get enough work done (why am I blogging?!), Melissa and I are going to the West Hollywood carnival this evening. The current plan is to each dress as a rainbow and then together we'll be, yes, a double rainbow. Yep. I was pretty proud of that one. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

Midterm Week

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Gift wrapped

Allison: Universe, for my birthday I would like a connection at one of the networks.

Universe: Okay.

Allison: Really?

I was lazy yesterday for the first time since I started school. I got some work done, but very little. And I didn't take care of any of the errands I needed to. This included getting a smog test done on my car, which I have to get in order to request California plates this week (another story, albeit a boring one). So I forced myself out into the gross, rainy day we're having (yes, gross and rainy) and went to take care of this annoying task. There was someone already there, and her car was especially problematic and taking a long time. Also annoying, right? Um, not if that person is the assistant to the PRESIDENT OF FOX and super SWEET AND FRIENDLY, AND someone who wants to hook me up with a PAID INTERNSHIP. It might be too early to be excited about this, but I don't care. I'm excited.

I just keep getting older.

That's it.

[sigh]

The below is from Friday afternoon while I was waiting on an assignment at my internship:

I added up how many hours of baseline work I have per week. 65. This does not include projects, additional assignments, tracking Hollywood news, watching TV/movies or showering. I've made it through two full weeks of school and it might be several more before I settle into the pace. (For those of you who know me well, I can tell you I've become someone who eats out of necessity and not enjoyment, which, let's be honest, is the most shocking thing I've said so far.) There is not one minute of the day that I'm not working on something or feeling guilty for not working on something. There is not one class I don't feel behind in already. That's a lie. There's one class I don't feel behind in. But that's it. And no matter how much I kill myself during the week, I still haven't managed to build up enough of a foundation in movie news/knowledge to confidently join class discussions. BUT. But I'm not drowning. Not yet anyway. It does make me feel better that I'm part of the overachieving half of the class (the people with full course loads and internships)...granted I might be the lowest performing of that half. And I have no idea how these people are doing it. Magic? Hermoine's clock from Harry Potter and the Something, Something? It's truly mystifying. When are these people going to the grocery store? I've essentially been out of food for a full week now but haven't even been able to do anything about it. (My diet today has consisted of four granola bars and half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because I only had one piece of bread left.).

I was going to wrap this up, but now that I've scanned back over the above, I feel like I need to balance it out because Ikinda sound like a suicide risk. There's a lot of good stuff, too, I promise. I still have huge friend crushes on most of my classmates and I'm meeting new people all the time. And I've already learned so much-- more than I could have imagined, honestly. I feel really lucky to be here. As one of my professors said, "You made it into UCLA's film school. You've already won." (My other favorite line from him was, "It's TV, we're not curing cancer here. Let's keep some perspective.")

I'd also like to take a moment to apologize to those of you who have not received a phone call/email from me in far too long (or to those of you who've had to deal with my stressed, not always nice evil twin). Thank you for bearing with me and loving me anyway...assuming you do still love me, but I wouldn't know for sure because I probably haven't called you.

I hope you don't have abandonment issues

I promise I'll give an update this weekend. Gold stars for you if you're still checking my sorry excuse for a blog, by the way.

Honeymoon

Holy crap. I'm in school. Did you know that? I'm going back to school. So weird.

Okay, so I had orientation yesterday. It was a long day. It was exciting. It was exhausting. I met all of my classmates except one (who I've since met as he's crashing at my apartment for the next two days until he can move into his place-- more on this later). I really like everyone a lot. Even the guy who sounded like he could be a jerk turned out to be pretty cool. It's still early, but I think we're all going to mesh together.

We had a session with the department head who's also a professor in the producer's program, Barbara Boyle. I've heard this woman will do anything for her students and cares for them deeply, but that she has extremely high expectations and will tell you she thinks you suck to your face. Or to a room full of people as if you're not sitting right in front of her. She frightens me a little, but I also think I'm really going to like her a lot. One kid (I feel like I can call him a kid because he just graduated from undergrad and is barely 22) almost got eaten alive during our introductions.

He earnestly said, "I've got a dual major in film and economics. And a certificate in leadership." Oh no, kid. Barbara: "A CERTIFICATE?! What the hell is that? I just completed a two-day seminar and I got a certificate. A CERTIFICATE?! Why would a school even bother? Where did you say you went? Was it a real school?" She was at least somewhat smiling as she berated him, but it went on for a while. Poor guy. Apparently no one warned him about Babs.

We found out what kind of work we're going to be doing. I think it might be as intense as second-year students made it sound. I thought maybe some of it was a scare tactic. I see now they were just trying to be good people. We have to start pitching stories. Right away. We have to start finding scripts for our thesis project. Right away. We have to start reading EVERYTHING even remotely related to the business. Right away. They really will be expecting a lot from us.

We were also told that we have to be the most aggressive people in the school. "You need to be the people who go up and introduce yourselves and interject yourselves into conversations. You need to be the one to ask someone to go grab coffee with you and tell you their film ideas. You need to be like the guy in a bar who's looking for a date." (See Allison's box. See Allison outside of it.) We were also encouraged to throw regular parties and were even told there's a certain amount of budget allotted for this (is that why it costs so much to come here?!).

We were also told we have to be the most charming versions of ourselves and that we need to work on developing that part of our personalities. And we have to flatter each person we talk to (the term "exploit insecurities" was also used). At one point I began to wonder how much of my thousands of dollars in tuition is going toward teaching me how to schmooze people. (Hi, my name is Allison Avery. I have an MFA in kissing your a--. It's so nice to meet you. Don't you find me charming?)

Okay, and temporary roommate guy, Brad. Brad is very cool. He's living in a co-op for the first quarter, but then wants to move to an intentional community. What is an intentional community? That was my first question, too. They are communities-- usually made up of artists-- who all want to live together and share time and meals. He's got a lot of interesting stories and I think I will really enjoy his company over the next two years. But yeah, there are some differences between us.

And...I think that might be it for now. Laundry today. Night hike tonight. Another full day of orientating tomorrow. Class (and possibly internship) starts on Thursday. Life is happening.

Shhh

I went to the DMV today to transfer my car registration to California...

I was finally called to speak to someone (I had an appointment and only waited about 30 minutes), and a very sassy but very nice woman took my form and entered all of my information into the computer system. After reviewing my forms, she told me that because my car was purchased within the past year, I had to pay sales tax. "We'll give you a credit for the amount you paid in Texas, but there's a balance." Okay. "The registration fee plus that tax brings your total to $1,360.22." I laughed. Then I whispered to her, "Can I just walk away?" She put her hands up, then hit the delete key and said, "I never saw you." I thanked her and left.

It's a schedule

In my woe-some state, I forgot to mention that I found out what hours I'll be interning. Monday: 8am-12pm. Okay, normal enough. Thursday: 9am-1pm. A little weird that Thursday morning starts later than Monday, but still fairly normal. Friday: 9am-7pm. What? Are you serious? You are? Okay. Sure. I've always hated Friday evenings anyway.

So for those of you who care about my schedule (like Aubrey, who has to plan our Skype dates), here 'tis...

Monday

8am-12pm intern

6pm-9pm class

Tuesday

7pm-10pm class

Wednesday

7pm-10pm class

Thursday

9am-1pm intern

4pm-10:30pm class

Friday

9am-7pm intern

Good thing I like staying up late...

Womp, womp, womp

I did not get into the additional writer/producer program. I'll still be able to take writing courses, so the end of the world can be postponed for now. But it would be a lie to say I'm not really disappointed. Oh well. Maybe I'll go back out to the beach this afternoon and let the sunshine work its magic.

From yesterday:

PS-- Happy Birthday, mom!

Blue

I got a pleasant surprise in the mail today. Wonderful Shelly sent me an excerpt from a book called Letters to My Son. Here is my favorite part:

"I watch you," she said. "I see the loneliness in your eyes. I watch your heart running away. You are like a lot of people. When life is too hard they try to look over the difficulty into the future. Or they long for the happiness of the past. Time is their enemy. The day they are living is their enemy. They want to die to the moment. They live only for the future or the past. But that is wrong.

"I have a simple rule," she continued. "Seek always the blue moment."

She sat down beside me. "The blue moment can happen any time or any place. It is a moment when you are truly alive to the world around you. It can be a moment of love or a moment of terror. You will know it only in memory...

"...the blue moments string together like pearls to make up your life. It is up to you to find them. It is up to you to make them. It is up to you to bring them alive in others."

It's a really beautiful day. I think I'll go to the beach now.

I want to go to there

Here is a recap of my interview:

2:20 Arrive in front lobby.

2:55 Interviewer dude comes out to get me (very apologetic, "We've never had a staff meeting run that long. Bad thing is I have another one in five minutes.").

2:57 I learn his best friend is a) from Corpus Christi and b) someone whose family I know pretty well.

3:02 He tells me I can start whenever I get the necessary papers signed by the school.

3:07 Drive away.

The office had a definite cool-kid vibe, and I really like it. It's next door to the MTV studios and across the street from Yahoo!'s offices. Extra bonus? Almost everyone had on jeans and sneakers. I can handle jeans and sneakers. I might be getting people's coffee and filing script submissions, but at least I'll be in a cool place and wearing comfy clothes while doing it. Oh yeah, and it's 1.5 miles from our apartment.

I also got my "audition" scripts (for the additional program I'd like to get into) submitted today and no longer have to worry about them, which is a big weight off my shoulders. Thanks to those of you who helped!

Dinner with a friend tonight. Mom gets here tomorrow. Things are good :)

My dues are...due

I know I owe you a decent post after my trickery, but I'm going to fail you a little longer and tell you only this: I have an interview tomorrow/today for an internship with Mandate Pictures. They're behind a couple of favorites of mine (Stranger Than Fiction, Juno), as well as some other gems I somehow managed to miss (Drag Me to Hell, The Grudge). I'll give a full report post meeting.

PS-- Birthday shout-out to Mr. Jordan. I promise 30 is really not that old.

You know how much I love everything that lives in the ocean?

I'm sorry. I tricked all of you into coming to my blog where you thought I would post a funny story about something stupid I did, but instead I'm posting a not funny story about something stupid I did. I watched The Cove, which in and of itself isn't stupid. But I watched it alone and shortly before bed despite my better judgment, and that was. If any of you has seen it, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, allow me to ruin the rest of your day. The Cove is a documentary about a horribly cruel dolphin slaughter that takes place seven months out of every year in Japan. They kill 23,000. And they sell the meat for human consumption despite toxic levels of mercury. Sea World sucks, too. I won't go into any more detail at the moment because it will send me into another fit of rage, but I think you get the point.

With all of that said, you have to watch it. You can call me a bleeding-heart, tree-hugging liberal all day. I don't really care. I just want you to watch this movie and sign the petition. The latter is super easy. The former is not unless you have no soul. It's truly, truly heartbreaking, make no mistake-- but as hard as it was to see, I'm glad I watched it. The more people who know about it, the more likely some change will be enacted.

Okay, I'm done. I'll try to do something ridiculous today that I can tell you about later. Shouldn't be too difficult.