Oreos (which I hate) and Crunch Time (which I´m nervous about)

It has been a bit of a weird day so far and it is only 11:30 am. I woke up, as per usual, at 6 am much to my chagrin. My body has been getting used to early wake-ups but that means that on the days I don´t have to wake up early (like today) it usually means that it still wakes up early. Anyhoo, I dragged myself to my last session of Physical Therapy (yay!) and to my great delight found out that I can now jump without my ankle hating me. This is good mostly because I can now get back to training for fencing and hopefully compete again soon. The Ecuador Grand Prix is coming up in July/August and I want to try to be able to make it there to get a national ranking. It would also be nice to just get back on the strip with an epee in hand. But besides the physical therapy, I came back home and had a bit of a talk with my mom about how I needed more support to make the "I´m leaving in September" thing possible. It isn´t impossible right now, but transportation to and from work has been a huge hassle. Mostly because they´ve been insisting on me taking the bus. I don´t mind the bus to Quito in the morning, but taking the bus in the evening/night really is a safety issue and is really dangerous. Luckily, they´ve come to pick me up, but it does limit my mobility by my parents´free time which isn´t really an optimal situation. We´ve reached a bit of an understanding now though, which is good.
After that, I went to the den for pretzels and got oreos instead. I immediately regretted it because every time I find Oreos I forget that I DON´T LIKE THEM. They´re far too sweet. Even dipped in milk. I can never manage to eat more than one or two before I get really sick of the sugar. I don´t like prepackaged cookies in general though (except for Peppridge Farm ones...you know, Milano and that kinda stuff) but I always forget about hating oreos. What´s more. The ones I ate this morning weren´t normal oreos...they had blue filling for that Rio movie and stuff. Bring back the normal ones!
Oh well.
Then there´s the reason why I´m still at home right now. This is because this afternoon the 1st AD and I have some serious crunch time to do. We have to put together this really hugely complicated keynote presentation for the clients tomorrow morning and so we have to sit around formatting everything and waiting for everyone to send us everything we need. So I´ll be doing my 9 hours of work at odd times today. Hell. I´ll probably be doing more. I´m not too terribly worried. I´ve been warned that a lot of that time is kind of dead anyways and involves a lot of waiting around for people to send you stuff, but still...kinda nervous. Haha. The people at the office made it sound somewhat painful.
The good news is, Friday is a national holiday so we get a bit of a breather before the shoot on Tuesday. Also, hopefully, I´ll be able to jump over to the other project they´re shooting on June 8 and 9. They haven´t assigned a 2nd AD yet so I´m thinking about lobbying my case. The 1st AD has been saying he won´t need one until pre-production, which is two days after my current commercial shoots, so I could definitely make it. I´d love to get a few more gigs! It means more experience and more saved cash for NYC. Both decidedly good things. :D
Another thing is, that I´ve decided, for all intents and purposes, I am a vegetarian who will eat a hamburger on occasion. I´ve noticed that even my chicken intake has been dwindling, so it is just easier to explain being ovo-lacto-pesci-vegetarian than to list off the meats I can´t eat and why I can´t eat ´em. Just saying....

Categories: AD work, foodie, job, NYC, vegetarian, work

Trial By Fire and Anniversaries

I know I´ve been a little absent from my blog for the past week or so. That´s mostly due to the fact that I got hired for a job (as a freelancer for a project). I´m the 2nd AD for an Advertisement Production company and I´m working on a short set of 3 commercials that will be shooting (theoretically) on May 31st. It has been a bit of a trial by fire mostly because the 1st AD hasn´t been able to be around this week which means I´ve been doing two jobs and learning the system at the agency (which is different than film) at the same time. I think I finally got a hold of it on Friday. Even so, it has been really long and very tiring days. Theoretically, the workday goes from 9-6 but the earliest I´ve left the office is 6:30 on Wednesday. It is a lot of work and a lot of fast thinking. I keep being super freaked that I´m going mess up and will be fired (because a single mess-up can get you fired in film/advertising). Advertising itself...well, it isn´t my first pick of work, but it is similar enough to film and I´m happy to be in a similar sort of environment. Also they´re paying me. It was kind of a funny story actually - I went in to interview for an internship and got a job right off the bat instead. They needed a 2nd AD and the Human Resources girl knew me from a previous shoot we did together about two years ago and knew I was a good 2nd AD. It felt good to get the job to be honest - it validates what I already know, which is that if they give me the chance to interview, I think I can nail the job. But to interview I need to be near the jobs...which is why I´m deadset on going to New York in September. Hopefully, I can get a few more advertising gigs at the same place and save up some money or just get the experience. I think it is really valuable experience to have in my CV - especially since the agency I work with has won a ton of awards and is internationally recognized. I´ve also been picking the other 2nd AD´s brain on some post-production tips. He´s worked at some impressive places for some impressive clients so I figured I might as well.
Besides the huge amount of work I´ve been doing lately, I´ve been pondering about the upcoming anniversary of my college graduation which is tomorrow. It feels really weird, to be completely honest, to no longer be able to say I am a recent graduate of Vassar College. It really feels like it puts an end to an age of transition. My stint in Academia seems to go further and further away and that in itself also feels strange since I´ve grown up in academia since I was 2 (my parents, being college Professors, would take me to their campus since I was a baby) and I feel the most at home in a college campus. But even the familiarity of the local university where my parents work at has begun to be compromised - it feels somewhat alien, and full of people that are much younger than I am. Or maybe I just feel old.
It is a strange transition and a strange moment.
At least, I am happy the rapture didn't happen yesterday (not that I thought it would). I was getting sick of all those ads all over the internet. I think we´re safe from any eschatological predictions until late 2012. Which is good.

Categories: AD work, anniversary, eschatology, film, graduation, job, Vassar