The Insanity of Life and Bidding Farewell to a Friend

I know.

It's been a while. And I apologize. There are just a million things going on in life recently and I have been putting off writing on my blog. I blame the country of Mozambique. Why? Because no one ever seems to blame them for anything.

No, seriously, I love Mozambique. The people there are so kind. So generous.

Okay, so I've never been there. But I've heard that about the people there.

Well, not really, but if I knew anyone who had ever been there, I feel sure that that's what they'd say. After all, haven't you noticed that when anyone you know travels somewhere, they always say that about the people in whatever country they're visiting? "They're just all so nice. So friendly." And I'm sure it's true.

So I feel comfortable saying that about the people of Mozambique. Because I'm sure someone would tell me that if they'd been there.

Enough about Mozambique. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about my little black dot.

For those of you who follow my lovely wife's site, Paisley Propaganda, you already know about our little black dot. For those of you not in the know, we're having a little black dot!

What that means is that we're having a baby. You can read about the trials and tribulations we've gone through just in the past week on her blog (see the link above) -- basically, she started having pains in her lower right abdomen so we thought, and the doctors thought, that it was an ectopic pregnancy.

So, after much fright and an awful night at the hospital, we did another ultrasound and, while the ultrasound tech couldn't actually say anything, I saw her mark a little black dot in my wife's uterus as "gest sac" which seemed clear to me to be gestation sac which, while it sounds like the same thing that the facehuggers leap from, seemed more likely to be our lentil bean-sized baby.

But we haven't heard the official word from the doctor yet and, even though I saw that on the screen, and even though my wife's pains have completely subsided, the doctor finally told her today (well, technically it was the doc's assistant) that they still weren't sure and they wanted her to come back in two weeks later for more blood tests and another ultrasound.

So to me, that means that they're probably scared of officially saying anything -- even though they marked a "gest sac" in the uterus -- until they can be even more sure so we won't sue them for malpractice if they're wrong. Or, it could also mean that they want to get even more money from our insurance company. Either way, it is frustrating because we just want to know for sure.

At the same time, we both feel pretty sure that everything is okay with our little black dot, or LBD, as we'll call it now. (Or at least I will.) Still, it would be nice to hear the doctor say that.

Other than that little bit of insanity that's been going on this week, I've been busy -- monumentally busy, even -- trying to catch up with my emails and business since my near 2 weeks with no computer. Plus I feel like jobs keep piling up on me. Just to clear the trash from my brain, here is a list of things that have been making me INSANE this past several weeks. [And don't feel obligated to read all of this -- I just need to vent. You can skip down if you so choose. As Bobby Brown said, it's your perogative. (Actually, he said it's my perogative, but you get my drift.)

1. My short film, which is now in post-production. We have a fine rough cut done, meaning it is close to being edited but I'll end up making a few more changes before we call it done. Right now, the composer is writing music for it and our audio engineer is reviewing it to see what he can do to fix audio problems, etc. We're probably bringing our lead actor in next week to rerecord his lines because there were some audio problems and a number of his lines are VERY soft. Plus, he's got some extra work -- humming, sobbing, groaning -- that we didn't record on set b/c it's heard off screen. We're planning on a premiere date here in Phoenix on March 9th. I worry a bit that we won't be done in time, but I guess that's why you create deadlines -- so they can make you crazy but still force you to finish before they hit. Still, a lot to do and I'm on a gig for 3 1/2 days next week, then potentially another Sonic gig the following week, then a brief trip to see family in Colorado. When will I find the time? (my soap opera moment -- picture me throwing my hand to my head in dismay)

2. A writing project I'm collaborating on about the US/Mexico border and all of the issues. It's a fun and exciting project; I just haven't had much time to write lately. But I did have a lot of work this past week because I'm meeting my writing partner tomorrow morning (a mere 8 hours away as I whack away at the keyboard) and I absolutely HAD to get her transcribed notes from my ride-along with the Border Patrol I did in early December. That story right there warrants a blog another day.

3. My writing organization. I run a little writing organization in town and it consumes way too much of my time. Seriously. To the point that sometimes it feels like a fulltime job. I've worked 50 hour weeks on this org and I don't get paid. Why? Because I love it. But it has made it more difficult to write. Which seems backward -- I should be in a writing organization so that I can feel like I can write more, but instead I write less. Something seems amiss... Anyway, this is one area in which I had weeks' worth of emails to read and respond to. Ugh. But it's done!

4. My personal emails. Ugh. Don't go there. Still a complete mess. I'll hit this soon.

5. Line producing. That's right. I'm line producing an indie feature film! Of course, what that means at the moment is that I help them get the script breakdown, schedule, and budget done. Then they take it and hopefully get money together so we can make it. The good thing is it looks like they really will get money, and stars too, which helps. Meaning it might actually happen for a change. But I have a LOT of work to do on it right now. And the deadline is yesterday.

6. Dealing with people who still owe me money. If any of you freelance, you may know the pains of chasing money from people you worked for. Unfortunately, it's a fact of life. I see it as this: I give them an invoice, they pay me in net 30, just like it says on my invoice. They see it as this: we get him to work for us, we pay him whenever we actually get paid from the client, unless we need that money for something else to cover our butts, and if it rolls around to us needing him again, we'll pay him. This is never fun.

7. Paying bills. Everyone knows this sucks. It's even suckier when your computer's down and you have a huge pile to deal with. And the bills just stare you down, mocking you, because they know you have to deal with them as soon as the computer's back. Evil bills.

8. Working out. Normally, this wouldn't stress me out and make me insane but I have to work out -- I'm putting on the sympathy weight before she's putting on any weight. That ain't right. Perhaps it's because I worked that damn Sonic job weeks ago and now have constant cravings for fast food, which I usually quell quite well. Must read "Fast Food Nation" again. Stop the madness. Or perhaps I'll try Morgan Spurlock's latest book, "Don't Eat This Book." But this just makes me insane because I know I must do it, and I know I must make time for it, but it just feels like I don't have time for it right now.

9. Calling Best Buy to try to get my money back from Geek Squad. This is a nearly pointless task because I am 95% sure they won't give me any money back, but I really want to talk to the manager and tell them what horrible service GS provided, and just to tell him that I sent out an anti-Geek Squad email to my email distribution list of 500+names to never go to Geek Squad. That would just make me feel good. Anyway, I keep putting this off because I know it's not necessary.

10. Beginning to organize tax paperwork. I have my 1099s organized and matched up with my invoices. Only 1 is incorrect. Now I just need my tax prep paperwork from my accountant and I can get that monster done. Our goal this year is to have it done by the end of February instead of waiting until 4/15 as we usually do. Naughty us.


So that's what's making me insane lately. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. It feels good to vent.

So enough of that. Goodbye insanity. Goodbye.

Speaking of Goodbye, tonight was a sad night. Tonight was the end of "Arrested Development", the funniest show on TV and my favorite comedy show. Absolutely hilarious. A friend introduced it to me last year and my wife and I can't stop watching it. It's just brilliant. If you haven't seen it, rent the DVDs and watch them.

We had 5 friends over and we watched the last 4 episodes -- all run back to back (and brilliantly scheduled opposite the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics -- brilliant on the part of Fox's marketing team). They were so funny. I just laughed for 2 hours straight pretty much. Actually 2 1/2, because when it was all over, we watched an episode from earlier in the season that's still on our DVR. The show has brilliant writers and brillant actors. It's just a shame that it never found its audience. So they're leaving.

But my friend Brian said he heard that it may be picked up by Showtime or ABC. So there is hope! Still, it was a sad evening no matter what. At least they made me laugh right through to the end.

With that, I'm signing off. I'm going to quickly do a Thursday 13 for yesterday, which I really did try to do last night but blogger.com was shut down for maintenance. So blame them for not hearing from me until this evening.

Thanks for letting me ramble tonight, folks. See you in the pictures!

The Movie Monkey