Transition

The last 3 weeks have been so.... weird. No. Hectic? No. Exciting? No.

Transitional.

To start off with: I quit E!.

Friday was my last day. Wow... let me say that again. Friday was my last day. Wow.

Seeing as I try to be professional with things of that matter, I gave in my two weeks notice two weeks ago. But I said I've had 3 random weeks, so let's back track a bit.

Events in chronological order, from past to present:

Fri, Sat, Sun - We filmed Peter's movie "The Punching Dummy"
Sat - Andy came back from Switzerland for 2 weeks
Mon - Started the 2nd draft of my book's outline
Wed - Mental breakdown at work, a public fight with bossman Bryan, and walked out
Thurs - Began an internship helping a vegan chef write her first book
Sat - Filmmaker House BarBQ celebration
Sun - Filmmaker House Superbowl BarBQ
Mon - Turned in 2 weeks notice
Tues - Halfway through 2nd draft outline
Wed - CSI location scouts knock on our door and ask if they can film at our house
Fri - CSI crew bring in plants and background material
Sat - Bye Bye Andy :(
Sat #2 - Rikka's in from Finland! Spend night with her
Sun - Work the Grammy's (12 hours, bleh- 2pm to 2am)
Mon - 5am CSI comes to house, films all day
Mon #2 - Saw Pan's Labyrinth
Tues, Wed, Thurs - Interview, after Interview, after Interview
Thurs #2 - Goodbye lunch with E! crew
Thurs #3 - Finish 2nd Outline of Book!!!
Fri - Last day. Surprise goodbye cake from E! crew, Drinks at night
Sat - Depression
Sun - Clean my room
Today - Excitement. Possibly start first draft of book?!

*whew*

Putting everything in a list like that is kinda cool in a way- you can see (a little) how the events in my life connected and led up to E!'s ultimate demise. It was full of signs from above showing me what I came to California (and am ultimately not working some random job at home) for.

The 2 most common questions I got in my last 2 weeks at E! were: "Why?" and "Where are you going next?", to which I would reply:

"I'm writing a book and need more time to work on it. I'll just get temp jobs or small jobs until it's done."

This is true. I want to finish my book before June (so I can shop it around for the rest of the year and hopefully have it published before my 25th birthday in 2008). Working at E! is a hinderance because I know too much about my job and naturally am inclined to work as hard as I can to get it done, which includes my own insane insistance on helping during my off-hours.

But something else made me quit too. Bryan thinks it's because we fought (I know he does, even though he says he doesn't). Not true. I'm ashamed of the fact that I had to walk out of my job- it shows a lack of dependibility on my part- but I'm glad I did. To be dramatic: it was a turning point.

I was mad initially because of something stupid... someone had called me in the morning to ask for help on something. I'm the only person who knows about certain aspects of my job so naturally people will (and do) call. But that day I was tired from having stayed up all night for the last 4 nights working on Peter's film and my book outline, and being woken up during my first few hours of sleep for the week was unpleasant.

So it all spiraled out of control and I went home. And after simmering, I had a good think. And voila! Turning point:

I work hard enough at E! to ask for a raise.

I shudder now to remember it. After a weekend chalk full of creativity, and a Monday and Tuesday of self-art progression, my first thought when it came to work was "more money." I had become corporate. The temp job I had taken for the sake of "making the rent" a year and a half ago (the one I had refused to be promoted in for almost 2 months because of my fear of become familiar) had now become some obsessive materialistic means to an end. Think Devil Wears Prada.

That weekend, when I realized what I had become, I wrote my resignation letter.

Of course, when people at E! asked me why I was leaving, I took out that part :)

Anywhoo, pictures:

Behind the Scenes of "The Punching Dummy":








Andy was back! (For just 2 weeks). Here he is saying hello to my computer:



Behind the Scenes of CSI "Episode 18":






Here's some footage I took of them filming a take with Gary Dourdan:



What's next for me? I'll work temp jobs or whatever to make the bills, and focus on writing my book. At the guidance of the vegan chef lady, I'm going on a "cleanse" for the next 2 weeks - where I don't eat anything and drink healthy mixes of herb drinks to flush my system of impurities - and then the week after that I'll be in San Fransisco working in Wondercon. And hopefully after that my short film, Peter's short film, and Louie's short film will all be a part of the Filmmaker's House First Annual Film Festival. Productive, eh?

Random:
- God it feels good to be back on my blog
- Brandi started a "Brandi and Kevin wedding blog" for her bridesmaids so that we can communicate with each other ideas and such. I gotta remember to write on that.
- I saw Famke Jenssen (at a VEGAN restaurant no less!) and Cuba Gooding Jr!
- Pan's Labyrinth is the best movie I've seen in a long time... it's definitely above Little Miss Sunshine, Children of Men and The Departed.
- I ate so much in the last 2 weeks (stress) that this cleanse will do me good. Hopefully I'll take off those added pounds.
- Lea Salonga is my new favorite of the month. Besides the fact that she was the one who sang my favorite rendition of Les Miz's "On My Own" (as well as being THE voice for Jasmine in "A Whole New World"), she's the most important and influential Filipino figure on Broadway today. Hell, she's probably the only filipino figure on Broadway today. This is her, singing "On My Own":