Let 2005 Begin… in Open Diary 2001-2018 (Pre-Prosebox)

Home from work today, as I was too chicken to drive the icy roads. I don’t do well in icy situations. Snow, not as bad. But ice? I suck royally and freak myself out when I start sliding around. I wrecked my car on the ice when I moved here a couple years ago, and I’ve never really gotten over that fear.

So the weather blows today and I can’t get out or anything. I suppose I should enjoy, but of course, am feeling guilt for missing an office day. I’m at home on my work laptop and sending out e-mails and making calls, etc.,but the fucking guilt for leaving work at 2:30 yesterday and ditching today all together is just eating me up! I heard that there weren’t very many people in the office today anyway, so I really should just try to get some shit done here instead of making myself sick.

To top it off, it’s fucking freezing in here! I’m living in an old (c. 1890), cold, dank, warehouse loft for fuck’s sake. A corner unit at that (two walls of exposed brick—with holes in them)! The windows have shifted around so much…I can actually see and feel the outside underneath one of the sills. It’s 20 degrees outside, and it’s coming inside through that crack. And they say it’ll be MUCH colder tomorrow. Hold on, I’m going to go plug that fucker.

I guess electrical tape is better than nothing, eh? I have TEN gigantic (about 8’ X 5’) windows in this place, and I’m sitting in the corner bedroom, shivering and watching the snow come down. At least it’s not that slushy sleet/ice combo anymore.

Anyway, I’m so tempted to crawl back into that delicious, warm, cloud of a bed and sleep these drearies away. But of course, I can’t and I won’t.

For a little bit of comfort, I’m burning a combination of fragrant oils in my aroma jar: pumpkin/nectarine and “exotic”, and oh man, does it smell delicious. Just one jar will permeate the whole place. I love this stuff.

And for even more comfort, I made such a simple yet yummy lunch consisting of tomato soup and homemade croutons. It was so nice to stand in front of the oven after the croutons came out. Heaven. I suppose staying at home could be worse.

In the past few days I’ve watched two of Movie Director’s flicks, and I don’t know…it’s so strange to watch the special features part and see his commentary. Very, very cool—just bizarre to know that we’ve actually gone out on, like, dates. The two I watched were hugely successful, and he was surprised to hear I’d never seen them (probably as surprised as I was embarrassed). So now that I’m caught up on those, I just need to finish the book he recommended. I know he’s talked to the author about a screen adaptation. It’s so freaking weird to be sitting here writing about my little inside scoop in the showbiz world. It’s exciting, but I fear looking like a star-struck, hanger-on loser. I kind of don’t even want to write about it here, but this is my only journal and the only place where I write stuff down, and even if nothing ever comes of this (which I’m sure it won’t), I want to be able to read back and remember how this felt.

I was surprised but thrilled when he called me on New Year’s Day. I had actually been just lazing around and I popped one of his movies in. He called about an hour after it was over, and I asked him how he knew that I was just thinking about him. Said he just did. He asked about my NYE, and then I asked about his—I almost choked when he told me which A-lister’s party he’d attended. Told me he didn’t stay long because it was mostly music people he really didn’t know…but….fuck! It’s just too surreal and unbelievable.

Is he really kind of interested, or am I just his little pet starry-eyed Midwestern girl? I’m curious.

BUT! As if this strange little connection to “the industry” weren’t enough, it appears that the stars (no pun intended) have aligned themselves in yet another unbelievable way: I got a call from my company’s marketing director the other day. Her voice mail made it sound like she wanted a favor from me. She calls me from time to time when she needs someone to cover for her in certain situations, and it’s usually simple little things that I’m happy to do. When I called her back this time, she kind of beat around the bush and stammered a little, but when she finally asked me if I would go to Utah at the end of January to help out with a project at THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL….I was more than floored!!!!

Now, it’s all basically glorified grunt work (and a LOT of it), and I’m sure I won’t be able to participate in much party behavior, and I’ll be too busy working to see any films, but …it’s effing Sundance!! I’m so thrilled, I can barely contain myself!

For now, there are a million things I need to concentrate on other than the strangeness of it all.

Like buying the loft, for instance. The ball is rolling, slowly. I’ve now been in touch with both an agent (thanks, P) and a lawyer. I’m so confused about how to handle this purchase. I’m terrified at the thought of it. Almost frozen. Like the parking lot where my poor little vehicle is sitting right now…buried in layers upon layers of ice.

But today, I did manage to make some phone calls and a little bit of progress.

You’ll never guess who recommended the attorney. Remember Aaron, the guy I “killed” around this time last year? We went out one time when I was really, really sick (even though I didn’t realize how sick I really was), and he apparently contracted my sick, and I never heard from him again? Well, I sent him a longshot e-mail asking him if he could recommend any good residential real estate attorneys—full well thinking that he’d probably blow it off. Sure enough, the e-mail bounced back an out of office message. I thought that was that.

But the next day I got a reply from him. He was in Columbia of all places, headed for Ecuador, and that he was sorry for never calling me back, that it was a difficult time in his life, that he wanted to catch up with me over dinner, and that his partner is an excellent residential real estate attorney and that I should call his partner immediately and reply back to him with my phone number so that he could show me the remodel he’d done to his house and to cook me dinner when he gets back from his trip.

Whoa.

All I wanted was a recommendation!

It’s getting dark already, and I’m so cold I’m about to wrap myself up in my down comforter, burrito style. I think it’s time to log off and make another pot of tea.