You put the lime in the coconut...

Okay, so happy day! I'm good at something other than winding up electric cords! So, we were practicing lighting again in my film class, and I'm in a group with three other girls (our group name is S.K.U.D. - Sexy, Kickass, Uncompromising Divas. I'm "Sexy"). Anyway, so we were trying to create "late sunset." I was directing, two of the girls were the "grips," and the last girl ("Diva") was the model. Anyway, we worked with colored gels and diffusing the light and bouncing the light off of white cardboard and all that for almost half an hour...and the teacher thought it looked great! So, that made me happy, because last time I directed a crew doing lighting, I didn't do a very good job. (I personally think it was because I was the first person who volunteered to direct lighting, and everyone else got to learn from my mistakes). Anyway, so that made me happy.

We're also going to start shooting our individual short films this weekend. I'm still working on my story. My first story idea was really depressing - the professor believes that every good film/story has an excellent "dramatic question" behind it. My original "dramatic question" was along the lines of Will Marissa choose to drink with her friends, even though her cousin was just killed by a drunk driver? Okay, I don't want to film that! That makes me sad! Plus, it sounds too much like a commercial for Mothers Against Drunk Driving or something.

So here's my new idea: I want to do something more lighthearted, so I thought of a totally ridiculous premise that I could maybe tweak to make it work. The basic gist is that this girl, Melanie Evans (does that sound like a "good girl" name?), just moved out of her parent's house. Her parents are both dentists, and the whole family is a bit obsessive compulsive. Anyway, it's her first night on her own, and she decides to commit the ultimate act of rebellion - not brush her teeth before going to bed! I know that it sounds completely arbitrary, but it's a huge self empowerment deal for her. Plus, we aren't allowed to have dialogue in the movie, so this is something that could be pretty easily portrayed visually.

Funniest thing ever today: We're taking a ten minute break (because we're in this class for about seven hours a day). So, about half of the people leave the room. This guy who stayed up until 3:30am last night working on homework asked for permission to go get coffee, so he left. Then, the other three students in the room decided they wanted to make a Starbucks run, and the professor decided he wanted to go too. I volunteered to stay and tell the four others where everyone had gone. Maybe I'm just the biggest dork, but it was hilarious for me to watch my professor and three classmates march out of the room on a spontaneous coffee run. Anyway, when the four others got back, everyone decided they wanted Starbucks, so we left a minute later in another car. So, the entire class is at Starbucks, except for the first guy who left. I don't know why this is so funny to me. Okay, ending that story. Sorry to put you through that!

So, I'm going to visit the Baltic countries in a little less than a month (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia as well as Poland, Finland, and Sweden). Anyway, so my mom is teaching me a little Swedish, so that makes me happy! (For the record, even though my mom is half Swedish, she is definitely not fluent, she never lived there, didn't learn it from my grandma, she just randomly studied a bit in college). I can say "I love you" and "good night" (or was it "sweet dreams"?). Anyway, so that's awesome.

Anyway, I really need to stop rambling and work on my toothbrush girl story. It'll probably take a million hours to fix, so I should get started. Oh, can't forget a random fact! Let me find a dentist one... "Dentists have one of the highest suicide rates out of every profession". Okay, so that's depressing! Be nice to your dentist, okay?

Have a miraculous day!