It's 7pm. I just woke up from a three hour nap that I really needed. I'm getting a little worried about this -- how much sleep do I need, for crying out loud? And how could I possibly be so stressed out-slash-depressed on the first day of school?
Of course, it might have something to do with the three beers I drank last night while reading and watching TV. And the heat today.
Yes, today was the first day of school. Mommy got me off on the yellow school bus...wait, that wasn't me. No, I got up at 7:30am and was out by 8. I've been at USC twice before 9am; I thought I had this early morning rush hour thing down.
Wrong.
Traffic on 101 --
(Have I mentioned that the traffic reports around here make me crazy, because they refer to all the freeways by name instead of by number? The Pasadena Freeway and the Harbor Freeway are the same damned freeway -- the name changes depending on which direction you're going. The Golden State is the 5 Freeway, but the Ventura Freeway evidently switches from 134 to 101. It's totally insane. Welcome to LA.)
-- was horrible this morning, and nary a slowdown or accident to explain it. If that wasn't bad enough, when I got off the 110 at Exposition, traffic was backed up onto the off ramp. Why? Because somebody was doing roadwork...right in front of USC, on the first day of classes.
And you know, a lot more people show up on the first day of classes than show up at registration or orientation.
I made it to class, which is Beginning Dramatic Production, and we basically spend the three hours going around the circle introducing ourselves and saying what our background was and why we wanted to be screenwriters. ("Hi, I'm Diane, I'm a Leo, and I love puppies and sunsets...") Because I was the last one to go, I spent my time wisely: I kept mentally reviewing the name and a salient fact about everybody who had already gone. One factoid: everybody, it seems, has written a screenplay, whether a short or a feature or several features. But not everyone has production experience, so I feel like I'm a little ahead of the game in that respect.
During break, I accompanied a couple of other students to one of the Starbucks on campus (that was not a typo), so I learned where that was, got some caffeine, and got to know a couple of other people.
After class I partnered up with a couple of other people in the class to get together and do our first project next weekend.
Then I drove over to Westwood to meet Tiffany for lunch. It turned out that she had mentioned to Allison that we were getting together so Allison joined us as well. We sat out on the patio under an umbrella, but that sun is pretty sneaky. We all got really hot sitting out there, and going back into the building was an air-conditioned shock to the system.
During lunch we discussed Allison's upcoming trip back to New York for the wedding of her high school best friend. In the intervening years, Allison and Dory have grown apart, but Dory meant quite a bit to Allison at one time. However, Dory has changed so much -- going from the competitive smart girl to someone more interested in manicures, full-length minks, and fashion magazines.
As Allison told stories about this woman, I said, "Wait a second, is this the one who thought that you and Adam were just roommates?" (Allison mentioned that she and Adam had gotten engaged and this friend said, "Oh, I thought you were just roommates" -- after three and a half years of living together, plus going to Java together for 6 months. Riiiight.) When Allison said yes, I said, "You're spending money to go to this bitch's wedding?"
Tiffany busted up laughing and said, "No, no, don't!" and Allison started laughing too. Allison is going to get some good stories out of this, but Dory sounds so self-absorbed and superficial that I can't imagine Allison's going to have a good time. If it were no big deal for Allison to buy a ticket back east I wouldn't have said anything, but it is a big deal.
At 2:30 Tiffany had to go save some patients and Allison had to go knock over a couple of banks for her job -- either that or deposit some receipts, I really wasn't clear on what she was up to -- so I headed back home. I drove through Westwood and debated going over Beverly Glen back into the valley. But it's so early, I thought. I'll take the freeway.
Ooops.
The key thing is to avoid the 405 ("the San Diego freeway") at all hours of day or night. It took me forty minutes to get home via the freeway. I was completely wiped out by the time I pulled into the garage. Which is why I passed out for three hours.
Tomorrow is the Directing class, which the student who ran our Orientation told us again and again not to be late for. I'm probably going to check my alarm a couple of times before I go to sleep. I'll be much better off, I think, when I finish moving to an early schedule, but with Darin showing up tomorrow, I have the feeling my progress on that front is going to be a wee bit set back. Heh. Heh.