At last...

Ok, I'm so sorry that I'm so terrible at updating my blog. On the plus side though, I think my parental units are the only people that ever read it. So that's good.

Anywho, I'm here and I'm ready to update. What's new...

It's been a crazy month or so - I feel like I've been running around all over the place - but in the best way possible. I went to LA and met 70% of my Supernatural heroes, and then I went to Charleston and saw a lot of my family (one more person and it would have been perfect) and I might be going to watch the Mens College Volleyball national championship this weekend. I love traveling. I really do. Whatever else happens in my life I'm going to find a way to travel a lot.

I only have about a month and a half left at this job and I've been vascillating between sadness over leaving what's been one of the best experiences of my life, and excitement over what's coming in the future and moving on to the next phase. When CF ends, I will stay in Austin for about a week and do nothing, and then I will drive home to Atlanta. And then I will go to NYC and see Brian and Mark and Margaret, and then I will take a train to DC and see Robin and Jerry WHO ARE GETTING MARRIED OH MY GOSH! (but not that weekend) and then I will come home again and turn 23 and be in Atlanta, and then I will go to Charleston and see Josh and Laura and Huntman and Meredith and THE OCEAN!!! And then I will drive back to Texas and move into the party house and begin my life as the cool, hot substitute and apply to film school and write screenplays and generally embrace my art. So you see... as much as I love CF - I have good reason to be excited. Because life is happening and it's happening to me and it's happening in all the ways I've dreamed about.

This past weekend was really great. Friday night I hung out with Amy and we walked to HEB and I showed her my favorite house in Austin and then we talked about going to the bookstore for about 4 hours and then we actually went and didn't buy anything. And then Saturday I worked at this community service project down in Kyle and I planted a tree and it was really hard! Apparently, they have clay in places other than Georgia. And only one of my kids came to the project, but it just happened to be this girl who I love and who told me that I was one of the 3 inspiring/meaningful adults in her life. Aw. I love these kids - how could I ever have doubted that? Not that I really did - but for awhile I doubted if that was enough but it is, it is, it is.

And then Saturday afternoon I went to a party and watched the Kentucky derby and then we went to watch game 7 between the Celtics and the Bulls at this place called the Tavern - and we witnessed this crazy barfight. And then I went to Nomad with Amy and Anna and Palski and we watched people sing Karaoke to indie songs.

And then Sunday I went to see Wolverine and Hugh Jackman is beautiful. And then I watched our CF team absolutely obliterate the Coalition of the Willing in the flag football championship (all of the other teams we had beat combined their best players to try and beat us and we won 60-18). And then I went swimming at C-wid's pool and there's a hottub and it was awesome. And then John and I bought steaks with government money and grilled out and drank red wine with Amy and Lauren and Tim and it was lovely.

It is so summer and I love it! I can't believe my life has been so great for so much of this year... I hope I can keep it going.

The big thing that's been going through my mind in recent weeks is the decision whether to pursue Screenwriting or Directing in grad school. When I first decided that I wanted to go to film school, I pretty much ruled out screenwriting right away because I figured that I already know how to write, but I have no idea how to make a film. So I've been pursuing the directing line of thinking for the past 8 months or so. But then I went back to LA and it rekindled my desire to go to school out there right in the midst of things. And being that USC is the only school I was looking at in the city proper, and given that it's essentially the Harvard of film schools - I concluded that I might have a better chance of getting accepted as a screenwriting student (given my background).

Well I wrote to a couple of my friends in the film world and asked their advice - and surprisingly (and overwhelmingly) the advice was that I should be applying to school for screenwriting regardless of where I go. This was a huge deal because first of all, going to school for screenwriting would be a COMPLETELY different kind of education. It would only be 2 years, and I wouldn't really make many films or maybe any. But I would get to take at least one course in directing, and I would save money by not having to produce films or go to school for 3 years. And afterwards, I'd be qualified to teach screenwriting in colleges. It was very much a trade-off because both production and screenwriting offer things that I very much want - and it seemed impossible to choose between them.

But after stressing about it for several weeks and soliciting several more people's advice - I've made the decision to pursue screenwriting - at least in school. So while I'll still probably apply to UT for directing (because their SW program doesn't have anything I want), I'll be applying everywhere else for SW. At least that's where things stand right now.

The thing is... I'm a writer. I always have been and I always will be. And whatever else I want to do, it just makes sense to start from what I know. Besides, I want to do so much in film, but I feel like in order to be successful I need to choose what I want most and focus on that... and let the rest follow. And I know that if I could only do one thing, I'd choose to be head writer/creator/showrunner on a show like Lost or Grey's Anatomy or Supernatural. So that's what I'll work towards and then we'll see what happens.

And get this, when I was first looking at film schools - I arbitrarily entertained the notion that I might be meant to go to school at UCLA because they had a professor named Lew Hunter... and those are my initials and my nephew's name so - you know - destiny and all that. But then their directing program was a million years long and didn't really have what I wanted so I nixed it. But then! As it turns out, it's screenwriting program has pretty much exactly (and I do mean exactly) what I want. And Lew Hunter happens to be the head of that particular department. So how about that?


Anyways, that's life. More updates to come a lot faster than this one did.