back to school...back to school...

I'm nervous as hell. Another semester, working with a crew, looking for jobs, directing actors...and dealing with the rumblings of my heart...it's going to be another busy four months. Fingers are crossed and teeth are pretty much gritted non-stop these days. Yikes!

Winter break as a whole was kind of uneventful. I didn't see half the people I was hoping too. My alchohol intake consisted of one glass of wine (it was a QUALITY glass, though). The screenplay I wrote for a contest got finished, but now I'm having trouble submitting it, and I think my time would have been better spent working on my own personal project instead. I didn't QUITE get the job hook-ups I had hoped for (which is not to say my searches weren't fruitless). I didn't talk to college buds online or via phone enough. I didn't see enough worthwhile movies on my movie list. I didn't swim or work out enough. I didn't practice much piano. I didn't travel anywhere. I didn't DO much of anything.

Although I did hang out with family and enjoy the SB scenery, and I guess that's what the break is for anyway. I also made some bucks working the front desk of the museum (and I got paid more than I was expecting for that friggin' "Treasures" video), and I made a few more dollars as a swim coach. Even more importantly, I got to be a bit of a role model for some of those kids. So all is not lost.

Yesterday while working at the museum, I had the exciting pleasure of glue-sticking envelopes closed (the party never stops!). I randomly looked down at one envelope, and saw that it was (gasp) addressed to John Cleese! Needless to say, I didn't glue-stick that one closed, but licked it personally myself. Yup. I licked John Cleese's envelope. How often do you get to say that?

I've actually met Mr. Cleese on several occassions (there was talk of him actually hosting the video I made for the museum, but--surprise!--it fell through). He's a pretty nice guy. And very British. His Britishness in fact might even make him seem nicer than he actually is.

Today I also had another encounter with a rare creature (first the ghost coon, now this!). On my way down to do my last coaching job, sitting in the middle of the road, was a tiny little 2-foot tall OWL. I've seen many barn owls and great-horned owls perched on the telephone wires at dusk when I take Old San Marcos Road down into SB, but never have I seen this little of a guy STANDING in the middle of the road.

I swerved to miss the ball of fluff with spindly legs, and pulled the car over. I got out and walked right up to the tiny dude. He stared right back at me, without a care in the world. Finally he hopped/flew off, only to land on a dirt mound a few yards away. I followed him again. Finally he flew off for good.

It turns out this little guy was a burrowing owl (95% sure). I had seen pics and vids of burrowing owls, because these charismatic guys are not only irresistibly cute, but they are the only owl that doesn't fly around a heck of a lot. Instead they live in the ground in prairie dog holes and hop around on their longish legs. I had always assumed they didn't live around here, but I guess I was wrong. We don't have any prairie dogs in Southern California, but we DO have tons of ground squirrels, which have the nasty habit of burrowing into every inch of soil and making a mess of things. I'm glad that a cute little owl at least can share its home with those loathsome varmits.

Speaking of loathsome varmits, I also saw "Over the Hedge" and thought it was formulaic, but cute and fun. The voice cast especially livens things up, the stand-out being William Shatner as an overacting possum. Since Shatner is jokingly known to be such a bad actor, casting him as a creature that "plays" dead was very funny indeed. And I'm a sucker for movies with cute talking animals and inventive animation. It wasn't Pixar or golden-age Disney fare, but it was certainly worth watching when my brain was too tired to handle anything heavy-handed.