This morning I got my first taste of true, undiluted Los Angeles commute traffic. Guess what? It sucks. After an hour in stop-and-go traffic (there were two accidents on 101) I finally parsed a clue and got on surface streets. I was late for class, but luckily this teacher understands the commute -- evidently he lives an hour away. The class was watching a video on the making of Goodfellas when I walked in, so I didn't interrupt much.
I was highly annoyed at him, however, at the end of class, because he tried to demonstrate the Hi-8 camera we're going to be using for productions and it was very clear he'd never picked up one of the things before. Okay, I was mostly annoyed because I had to cut out of there and book back across town to wait for the couches and for Tiffany and Allison. But hey, this is a production class, okay? The teacher should be a little familiar with the production tools before we get started.
Tiffany and Allison got here, after having stopped off for lunch. They brought munchies and we settled down to eating chips and cookies while waiting for the sofa guys to show up.
We only had to wait a little while. The sofa guys showed up, bearing sofas, and they dropped them off in the living room just where I told them to. It's like I have a real apartment now. Truly, very exciting. A new place to sit, a new place to chat with friends, a new place to nap. Basically, I can't wait until class is done tomorrow so I can come home and snooze.
The most amazing this is: it's not too much furniture! I was sure that having a sofa and loveseat show up would crowd me out of the living room and perhaps make me resettle in the dining room. Nope. The couches nicely section off my "office" by the balcony.
As I sit here typing, the TV playing over my left shoulder, I glanced over to the apartments across the street and noticed a young man dressing. I stopped typing for a while; now I'm back. Whew. LA is very, very interesting.
So we watched Orlando but I had to stop it a couple of times because Tiffany kept getting pages from the hospital. In the midst of one pause Allison said, "You're not enjoying it very much, are you?" I enjoyed the production design an awful lot, particularly in the Elizabethan section, but yes, I felt the movie was boring and ponderous. I'm glad I saw it though; I'd heard an awful lot about it, and one should be exposed to as many types of movies, even arty foreign ones, as possible.
Particularly, after all, as one is a film student.
Now I am off to watch Casablanca, which, I am ashamed to admit, I've never seen. I've seen lots about it, and I know the storyline, but I've never seen the movie. (This is much like my knowledge of literature: I know lots about the books and the authors, but many of the books I've never read myself. Though I have read War and Peace. Really.)
I also need to stay awake long enough to talk to Darin last night. I didn't really talk much with him last night (except to get some long-distance help with setting up my TV/VCR unit) -- at 10:30 I decided I couldn't stay awake much longer. (I managed to watch NYPD Blue until Sipowicz got beaten up -- then what happened?) And I fell asleep pretty damn quickly.
I'm going to talk to him from the spacious confines of my comfy couch. Hee hee.