plus: what a week alone has taught me.
Oops! Overslept.
Today was Gonzo's going-away party (and did it occur to me to bring the digital camera? not until right now). I puttered around the house until 2, at which point my stomach couldn't take it any more and begged me to get it some food, thereby totally ruining the whole reason for going to a barbecue.
Gonzo and his fiancee Felipa are going to drive cross-country for two weeks and then fly back to Portugal from New York City. They are going to do this in a car with no air conditioning. (Better them than me, I say.) Gonzo's spent at least 3 years here and his visa's up; time to go home.
At the party was Alex, an Aussie from the USC program, whose visa is also up and has to head home in August. She's not looking forward to going back, I think--not because she doesn't love it and miss it, but just because if it's hard to leave a country and fly halfway around the world to live somewhere else, it must be even harder to do more than once.
Also at the party was Angie from my thesis class, whom I haven't seen since graduation. She was a bit woozy, being on pain medication because of an auto accident she was in recently. She called the last year "The Year of Adjustment"--trying to figure out how to work a job and write and have a life. She had her boyfriend with her and has a job where she only works 4 days a week, so I guess she's doing okay.
Aaron and Jody (who used to be in the writing group) were also there. Aaron also brought Jennifer, his girlfriend, who graduated from the Screenwriting Program this year. We stood around and talked about unsympathetic protagonists: how do you make them compelling? We're writing nerds, in other words.
Linda didn't show up, and it wasn't until I got home I found out why--some producers she'd sent one of her scripts to picked today to call and talk to her about it. Heh.
Justin (also a former writing group member--hi Justin!) organized the party. Gonzo and Justin were sharing an apartment off the Miracle Mile, but now that Gonzo's leaving and Justin's getting a new roommate, Justin's moving out of the apartment he lived in the whole time he was at USC. I can't remember where he said they were looking--Santa Monica probably. Everyone wants to live in Santa Monica, despite the end of rent control.
The funniest thing was that at least 3 people said to me, "Hey, did you watch Pirates of Silicon Valley?" I had to say no, I didn't, although I told them what Darin told me about it. He saw it last month, when we were in the Bay Area for week, when he was with some people from Apple who were during Steve Jobs I. (They had, natch, a pirated copy of the movie.) Evidently, according to the people who knew Steve I, Noah Wyle's portrayal was pretty damn accurate. How's that for scary?
Fernando and I had breakfast yesterday--it's Saturday, gotta have breakfast with Fernando! We went to More Than Waffles in Encino, which was Less Than Good. I knew there was some reason Darin and I hadn't gone back, and I was reminded of what it was.
When we came out of the Encino Town Center, an idiot had parked his or her Jaguar so close to my car I had to get in to my car through the passenger seat. (Note to the reader: this is very hard to do in an SUV. Rated: Not Recommended.) If I'd had any paper in the car, I would have left a nasty note. I will leave the composition of said nasty note as an exercise to the reader. Suffice it to say, I can be quite foul-mouthed when I'm ticked off.
Yes, keying occurred to me. I did not act thereupon, however.
Darin called last night, totally beat. He's been going like crazy at MacHack. And evidently his sessions (he did three--two interviews and a talk on x, where x can be replaced by "some incredibly hard programming topic Diane knows nothing about"). I could tell he was energized by the interaction he'd been having, however. He totally thrives on a group of like-minded, intelligent people. I wonder what he's going to do if we stay in Hollywood too long.
(That was a joke.)
Darin returns tomorrow. (Finally!) I've discovered a few interesting things about myself this week, having not lived alone for 7.5 years now (although I did have this week free last year too):
- I don't watch TV, at least now that it's summer. I turned on the TV once this week, found nothing to watch, turned it off.
- I eat a lot less when I'm by myself...although not of sweets. Those I eat the same amount of.
- I am more likely to have an alcoholic drink if Darin's not around. Beer at the sushi restaurant or at Gonzo's party.
- Most likely, dinner will be a frozen dinner.
- I'll stay up until all hours reading. I guess I didn't want to go to sleep by myself, without knowing Darin was somewhere in the house.
- I am not a gregarious person. (Well, okay, I knew that part already.) I won't get out of the house if I don't make specific plans to do so. I can just hear my children's voices now: "Daddy, how come Mommy's a hermit?"
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com