More Orange Juice Trauma at Dunkin Donuts

Since I got back from church this afternoon, I have been parked on the couch watching hours and hours of the BBC's Robin Hood. It's wonderfully reminiscent for me because it was just premiering when I was in England. Isn't it funny, I probably wouldn't watch it if it came on week after week; I didn't watch it then (though my friend N. made the observation that Jonas Armstrong is ridiculously good looking). But I'm finding that this series is super enjoyable in five hour segments (however the commercials are getting tiring). But I'm so mad! They're not showing every episode, so we're missing quite a few episodes and bits of story in between.

Remember how I have that fear of falling down the stairs? It's the worst in my house. The stairs are already slippery, then if you're wearing socks, you can feel yourself gaining momentum as you charge down until you crash head first into the antique desk/glass enclosed bookshelf at the bottom. It's quite scary really.

So that idea I said I'd come up with? Well, I got an idea for a short. Nothing special, but there's a situation and a plot. I got a couple more cool situations/characters - if only I could remember all of them... However, a sort of cool concept is starting to grow moss (like a stone that's... not rolling). It's a bit out there, but with some serious world building, it's not so far fetched.

Movies I've seen the past couple of days:

NATIONAL TREASURE TWO: BOOK OF SECRETS - I really enjoyed this movie. I'm not sure it had the believability of the first one - they reach a little bit beyond themselves, I think - but it's still a fun adventure movie. I found myself highly entertained and even watching with bated breath sometimes.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX - I saw this when it first came out in the theatres in the summer, but my family and I watched it again the other night (well, I skipped out for about twenty minutes to play Guitar Hero III). I enjoy the Harry Potter series, though the books are better and have so much that the movies are often choppy and off kilter, I think. But the thing that really annoys me, I think, is the fact that they have all this money and all these resources and they don't bother to get little things true to the book. Like Tonks? She's supposed to have short pink hair. I know it's little things and I'm nitpicking, but why do they make choices that go deliberately against the books?

PS I LOVE YOU - Well, I was sad for a lot of this movie, so maybe it accomplished its purpose. But, it was an alright movie. I did want to see it, but after seeing it, I think it would have been better for a girls' night in and our Saturday night movie ticket would have gained a better return from Atonement (which is unfortunately not playing many places near me) or Juno (which was playing the exact same time and same place as PS I Love You). But, it had an Irish actor, Gerard Butler (nice surname, huh) and a few scenes that took place in Ireland, which made me happy (and a little sad). I've been getting in touch with all my Celtic roots in the past couple of days. Mix that in with my English ancestors who repressed my Celtic ones, and you've got some sort of weird twisted dysfunctional family drama on your hands. [We did also talk about how amusing it would be to be the ticket seller for this movie and keep hearing random strangers tell you that they love you and how you could use that to your advantage. My friend L. told a story about going to see "Because I Said So," and the ticket boy replied, 'Well, only because *you* said so." Geez.]

(Just a couple of the) Movies I'm looking forward to:

JUMPER - I think it's a cool concept and it looks very exciting and well done for something with such high special effects needs AND Hayden Christensen is in it. This is the movie he was filming in my uni's town the day I was at my friend's wedding. The saddest day of my life...

GET SMART - I used to *love* this tv show when I was a kid. I'm not sure about Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, but I think Steve Carell will be great as Agent 86.

NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN - Saw the trailer when I went to NT. It looks, maybe not as good as the first one, but it still looks like bloody fun.

27 DRESSES - Huh. Somebody made a movie about my future. How funny!

Movies I will make fun even though I won't see them:

RAMBO - Really? Really??

THE WATER HORSE - So they finally made a Scottish Free Willy. If you watch the trailer, you can even see the famous shot of Willy jumping over the little hero boy.

MAD MONEY - Katie Holmes gave up an amazing character in an incredible movie that will be a sure fire blockbuster to act in this?

I just finished reading "The Portable Film School" by D. B. Gilles. Not a bad library read. I feel like it got my head in the right mindset for filming a couple of shorts next semester.

I pulled in another set of scripts from Zoetrope. Maybe the third time will be the charm, but I have yet to read and review one single script. I've heard Zoetrope is a great place to get feedback on your screenplays and I know a lot of very talented writers hang out there, but I just can't make it through the requisite four reviews before you can get feedback on your own. And reading the loglines for the scripts I have in my bin right now just made my heart sink a little. I'm sure once I get back at school, too, it will be a lot harder for me to find time to get into Zoetrope. Which is sort of why I wanted to get started while I was on holiday. Maybe after my screenwriting class this semester when I'll be giving feedback all the time, maybe during those first couple of months in the summer, I'll be able to get into Zoetrope. It's supposed to be good, no?

My, I do ramble on sometimes, don't i?

God bless the Queen and save America

Last week was my one year anniversary of arriving home from England. I tried to make it commemorative. I wore my English gear, shared a pint of cider with a friend, and had a cup of tea while watching a British movie. I also ended up going through my photobucket page, skimming through all my pictures. It did make me miss England, but life is good.

The day I came back from England was also the day that my parents handed me my letter from Michigan. It was a pretty emotional moment, even though we all knew what it probably said. It demanded a decision of me, when all I had to do previously was hypothesize. Sometimes I feel like my time in England was a pause button in my life. I was leaving one school and going to a different one, trading one life in for the other, and while I was in England I was making those decisions about what I wanted my new life to be.

My life has been a little disjointed, at least geographically, and it makes it easy to look back and see how things have changed. Sometimes I think people don't stop and reflect back enough. So much has happened in the past year. My life is so vastly different from what it was or from what I thought I wanted it to be. You lose things and gain new things. You lose contact with old friends and make new ones. You buy new clothes, get new haircuts, get new names. You struggle with different things, and you grow in new ways. I wish people would stop and take more time to recognize these things, to look back and see how they've changed and evaluate where they are, if they are living the life they want, if they are where they want to be.

This is not where I thought I would be. It's not all that bad. : )

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

How I hate goodbyes.

I thought I would wrap up my six months here with a second installment of what I've learned in England:

1. If you wash a spider down the drain, it really will crawl up again.

2. Cutting the grass, like cooking and ironing, is also a waste of time. However, as it is difficult to do with company, it just shouldn't be done at all.

3. Peer pressure is a "good" thing when we use it on children.

4. Don't go back and read old love letters.
EDIT: Go back and read old love letters.

5. What sleeping ducks look like.

6. If you shave a zebra, it will be all black. If you shave a tiger, it will still have its stripes.

7. Happiness and pain can co exist simultaneously.

8. Sometimes you have to make the mistake, even if you know it's a mistake.

9. If you weighed all the spiders in the world and all the people in the world, the weight of the spiders would be more.

10. People seem to either take life too seriously or not seriously enough.

11. All swans belong to the Queen.

12. I am a loud person.

13. If you're not properly hydrated, your brain goes fuzzy.

14. It's easier to choose to love someone than choose to not love them.

15. Walks at dusk are nice.

16. As Finding Forrester says, "Write your first draft with your heart."

17. The only thing that can make a bad day worse is finally seeing your cute neighbor from across the street... as you're walking home from buying the biggest bar of chocolate ever.

18. God brought me to England for a reason (or maybe more than one), and I should never wish that I was somewhere else.

19. I've been mispronouncing "first" my entire life.

20. Do not stir rice.

21. The British bus system is hopeless (and if trains are down for engineering work, well, good luck).

22. Always take a flashlight and compass when traveling.

23. Don't always play it safe.

24. Glasses don't give the Bug Off look they're supposed to.

25. Slow down.

26. Be careful of making attachments you know you're going to leave (not don't do it, just be careful)

27. The people of Cardiff are terrible drivers.

28. Just because a train is about ready to leave the station doesn't mean you should jump on it; check to make sure it's the one you want first.

29. Don't use your passport as your everday ordinary ID.

30. Life is better when all you have is a good foundation than it is when you have a whole condemned mansion.

I experienced my own personal version of hell today.

Hell is not made up, as some theologians might think, of darkness, hellfire, and flesh eating worms. Oh no. It's much worse than that. I had a revelation today that really, hell is made up of thousands upon thousands of wet lawns that "must" be cut. Torture worthy of Greek and Roman gods.

I had five cups of tea yesterday. Five. I am officially coming back from England a tea drinker.

Speaking of coming back from England... Elodie and Nadine came over today and we mapped out the next couple of weeks, where we were going and when and my good bye dinner party. My what? I'm leaving? I didn't have a good bye party when I was in America, so it's going to be really sad, I think. There's not enough time. There's too much time.

Once a month on the second Thursday, a church in Emsworth throws a kids event called Messy Church. It just started up again for school time, and we've gone the past couple of months with the children. Yesterday, the fantastic simplicity of a children's praise song struck me, for the second time in a row. We should sing kid's songs more often.

If I were a butterfly, I'd thank you, Lord, for giving me wings;
And if I were a robin in a tree, I'd thank you Lord, that I could sing;
And if I were a fish in the sea, I'd wiggle my tail and I'd giggle
with glee;
But I just Thank You Father, for making me - ME!

Chorus
'Cause you gave me a heart and
You gave me a smile
You gave me Jesus, and
You made me His Child
And I just Thank You, Father
Foe making me - ME!

If I were an elephant, I'd thank you, Lord, by raising my trunk;
And if I were a kangaroo, I'd hop, hop, hop, right up to you;
And if I were an octopus, I'd thank you, Lord, for my good looks;
But I just Thank You, Father, for making me - ME!

If I were a wiggly worm, I'd thank you, Lord, that I could squirm;
And if I were a crocodile, I'd thank you, Lord, for my big smile;
And if I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear, I'd thank you, Lord, for my
fuzzy, wuzzy hair;
But I just Thank You, Father, for making me - ME!

'Cause you gave me a heart and
You gave me a smile
You gave me Jesus, and
You made me His Child
And I just Thank You, Father
Foe making me - ME!

Sometimes, I wish my nickname was Turtle. But Leila's cool too.

I am so hyper right now. Too bad it's 10:30.

Today I sat down and wrote about 7 pages of a treatment for a script that's been bouncing around in my head for the past couple of months. It's a great feeling when everything works together. I'm about halfway through the treatment, then I'm going to send it to my best friends and see what they think. And I'm totally conning them into helping me by naming characters after them. Well, technically, it's because they ARE them. Art, life, one of them is supposed to imitate the other, I think. I'm slightly worried about my writing right now, though, because NaNo is coming up, and the other day I realized that for the past several months, I haven't written any fiction. It's been strictly scriptwriting. They are completely different, and I'm a little worried I won't be able to sustain a piece of fiction of length. And being in England and trying to write a NaNo that's good and working out my future and trying to work on my scripts at the same time... we'll see.

I'm coming home in four and a half weeks!

The sunsets in England are amazing. Three nights in a row they've been breath taking. I don't remember seeing sunsets like this in America. Maybe I just haven't been looking. Dusk is my new favourite time of day, especially to go for walks and think.

Hmmm, thinking.

Please pray for my upcoming decisions. I'm totally procrastinating on getting a job (or jobs) for when I get back. I should start hearing from colleges and some scholarships soon. Just pray that God makes it really really really obvious what He wants me to do. I know what I want to do and I know what will probably end up happening, but I want to make sure that I do what He wants. I'm scared that I'll just have to make a blind choice, and that God will show me *afterwards* that I made the one He wanted. I want to know before I do it. And I hate this waiting.

I wish I had more Dave Matthews music.

Oxford

Freaking amazing.

Today, when it was just me and Josiah hanging out in the afternoon, he climbed up next to me and said, "Amy, I'm gonna marry you." And I laughed and asked him why. He got this sorta cross face on and said, "Just because I want to!" Then I told him that if he married me, he'd have to do everything I said. He thought about this for a minute, then said, "Mhmm." However, he also said it means I'd have to stay here in England, so I don't think it will work out.

Jessica told me I can say I got at least one proposal while I was in England. Thanks, Jessica.

Today was a beautiful day. It was the ditch-the-world, kite-flying-and-picnic, be-with-your-best-friends, reading-and-writing-in-the-shade day. I was working most of it. Work is a little bit strange at the moment. All the adults are stressed out about their personal lives. I'm struggling with my relationships right now, with my friends, with my family here, with myself. I think I'm getting the hang of it, though. I've given in and am now going to sleep ridiculously early, which means that I almost have enough energy to last the entire day.

I'm so psyched about NaNo. I'm going to write a novel about an au pair, because the weird family dynamics you get when you add in a third quasi-authority figure are just amazing. It's going to be complete fiction, though. And I've started ruminating on my next screenplay. I really want to rewrite The 4:05, but I need a hard copy, and I don't know where to print out a 50 page document. Of course, I was looking over it all last night, and it all looks completely brilliant to me, except for the horrid bits that need to be changed. Alas, I have to wait several months for any unbiased feedback. But I'm hoping to get it cleaned up for a contest next year.

I crave intellectual engagement.

Anyone else supremely disappointed by the casting of The Nanny Diaries?

Yesterday was trouble. Friday night, and I'm utterly exhausted in every way. And quite randomly, at a time when I was minding my own business (aka being self abosrbed), a lady I know comes up to me and says, "It's alright. You'll get through it. We've all been there, and it all comes out alright in the end." I was stunned, because I hadn't shared anything with her (though she could probably witness the struggles that happen with the children.) This woman has been through more than I could ever dream of enduring; It was encouraging, because sometimes I can be a great fatalist.

AND I got to talk to one of my best friends for the first time since being in England. She's amazing. She even let herself be late to a party by 45 minutes just to be there for me. :)