Smiling and Clapping

Christine, a dear friend of mine, has been doing the loveliest day-to-day photo documentation of her October. I look forward to it every day and so should you.
Visit:

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday are my last "sessions" interning at Jinks/Cohen. It's been an amazing time, but I think I've been there long enough. Altruistically, I'm going to say that it's time to give someone else a chance to seize this opportunity. Realistically, I can't keep working for free and make rent. I'm sad, though. It feels like I'm releasing my last "live" connection to the film industry. While I know that's not the case, it's also one less thing to brighten my week. This will require some ingenuity on my part - keeping myself busy until I find a full-time job or a second (or third) part-time one.
Already, though, I have written a lot, and I've gotten a lot of work done on various projects with other people. I think I needed to let go of the security to really kick my ass in terms of living in the real world.
I found out that one of my closest friends in the LA area will be making his way back to Chicago at the end of the month. This is a bit of a bummer. And when I say a bit, I mean huge. I'm a little nervous. One less friend means one less excuse for me to get out of the house and live a little. One less friend means one more reason to hide and wallow. But again, maybe this ass-kicking is what I need to branch out a bit here in La-La Land.

Speaking of serious ass-kickings, my little sister, the youngest drum major of the RIHS Marching Band, better known as The Pride of Rock Island, has been doing so well in competition. It's so cool to hear about her flourishing in high school. She's so much better at drum majoring and high schooling than I ever was. It will be great to see her come Christmastime when I go home to visit. I miss her so much, but it's such a bright spot every time I get to talk to her about what she's doing.

Saturday, I think I'm going to walk to the top of a mountain. I've been hanging out in the in-betweens for too long.