So in Love.

I wish talent was communicable. I wish if you could just be close enough to a person, their genius could travel through ions and particles and zap you into similar levels of ingenuity.

I was in the presence of Aaron Sorkin today.

I got a tip that he was going to be doing a lecture for the film students today. I asked for details. Found out time and place 20 minutes before the Q&A started. It's wonderful to be an alumnus. At which point I jumped in my car, found a parking spot, and walked like a flat footed crazy person to the lecture hall. I was NOT going to miss this opportunity. I was ready to park illegally and suffer a ticket if I had to.

I saw two professors, a couple old classmates, oh, and did I mention AARON SORKIN? I was twenty feet away from Aaron Sorkin. Breathing was... difficult. Not only was Aaron Sorkin there, but so were Jesse Eisenberg and Armie Hammer. There was a showing of The Social Network last night [aw, which I missed], and today they were doing a Q&A [which I managed to get myself to]. They all were so excellent.

A lot of the discussion focused on the movie [which I will probably go see now], but Aaron [oohh, he told a student to call him "Aaron" not "Mr. Sorkin." There's nothing as thrilling as when someone you really admire tells you to call them by their first name] did mention that he watches ESPN to procrastinate just as much as the ordinary writer, that the final draft varied little from the first draft [effective prewriting, maybe?], and that Mr. Fincher did 99 takes of the opening scene.

Oh man. Aaron Sorkin.

I was in cloud nine all day long. Screenwriters are really the loveliest people. I still maybe can't process the fact. Aaron Sorkin. Me. [100 other people.] Same room.

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For anyone who's following my celebrity count I've got Pamela Gray, Tom McCarthy, Aaron Sorkin, David Koepp, Ed Helm, Carrie Fisher, Anne Hathaway, Sam Waterson, George Lucas, and the back of Joshua Jackson's head. Well, maybe about that last one. I wish they were trading cards.

I watched Castle tonight. I'm thinking about spec-ing it. Castle hosts a poker game with three other blockbuster writers. James Patterson included. They bust his chops for only putting out one novel a year. I wish I hosted poker games and cocktail parties with famous writers who would ruthlessly tease me into productivity. Wish I knew James Patterson.