What Babo lacks in mind power, he makes up for in love

"Babo will protect you. Having a bad day? Someone giving you a hard time? Babo's got your back. What Babo lacks in mind power, he makes up for in love. He will stick with you to the end, and when something scary happens, he will send you a nice greeting card from wherever it is he runs away to."

Beware: you are entering a long drawn-out ranty-rave about how just super great everything is, Pollyanna. Consider your ass warned.

A few years ago when I was having one of my notorious strings of bad luck (I think it was the time my grandpa died, my car died twice, and I fucked up my hand and had to go to the emergency room and later have my finger re-broken, all within one or two weeks), a friend gave me the above Ugly Doll keychain for luck. I used it until I got my widdle buh-buh (now giant cat-man Neko) last summer (when I had to hide everything of such kittenly temptation), but honestly, it was always just a cute trinket to me. Little did I know the power it held.

On Monday I was looking for something else and came across the ugly little thing (now kinda grubby) and stuck it on my purse zipper for the hell of it.

Tuesday, while out having a great time with my old work friends (and $.75 PBR pints? Gotta love suburbia), I got a call, a hopefully very lucrative job working on corporate videos for a locally based corporation. Hopefully as in maybe it will turn into a lot more work.

Then I got the check I'd been vaguely waiting for from cashing out my pension when I quit my job. Didn't really know when it would get here (they possibly only paid out twice a year, so I was thinking January), so I wasn't counting on it for anything. Not only was it here, but, uh, it was a LOT MORE than I had expected. Nice reward for my years of doorknob shit, I have to admit. And to clarify, this wasn't money I put in and am losing some of now, this was 100% contributed by my otherwise shitty employer.

Wednesday was fun, nothing terribly lucky, but it was the wrap party for the movie I just worked on and I had a very good time.

Then today I randomly got ANOTHER job that actually pays actual money. And anything local that pays (most of my paying stuff has been "passing through" TV and such) will hopefully lead to more work too. It was a referral by someone I respect, the girl who called me sounded really nice (good first sign that it won't suck), etc. So hooray. Pays well too.

Later I went to a little industry happy hour with a friend and might have helped her get some work (introduced her to the people I knew there), had a good time, and got back on the freebie but fun job tomorrow that I thought I wasn't going to be able to do. Not only that, they were so sweet about being happy I was going to be there. The one who I saw at the happy hour called after I left to see if I could work because someone else would be gone, and was really happy I said yes. So then I called the director (or producer, I forget now, oops) to tell him I was coming after all, and he got all happy and told me I was a bright spot in his crappy day! How cute is that? So those last bits aren't really luck, but it was a good day.

Anyway, I'm scared to death now that I'm going to step on a crack, break a mirror, or something else to end my string of goodness. But it's been an awesome week, and if things stay this good, my head just might explode.

Well, this fucking bites.

I was in a bar about a mile away from this bridge when it happened (and have proceeded to get a little drunk, sorry). Hadn't driven across said bridge in a week... Which is a little creepy since I can't remember the last time, before the shoot that brought me to the area last week. Not that it's about me and my non-close-calls. My landlord was the first person to ask if I was OK, via text message, and I was like, OK, me? Sure, why? OHHHHH, because people like US were ON that thing. Not that I didn't realize it, but that's when it really hit. Now I'm worried about everyone. Not that it matters whether I knew the affected people or not -- I got worry enough for everyone.

Things like this don't happen in Minneapolis.

Update:

It's 2:45 pm and I'm SO BORED. I've done my resume, and I guess I should try to find random people to e-mail it to (got it ready for tomorrow, though). I haven't spoken to another person since Sunday pretty much... I've spent about half of my waking hours for the past 3 days online... HELP!

Well, right now I'm going to go scoping out free stuff I found on craigslist. There is a green old-school metal cooler on someone's curb that I'm going to go check out. Yeah, it's sad. I don't have room for this crap, but at least it's a free passtime. (Except the gas...)

Floorball tonight -- I haven't been in at least a month -- but it's supposed to be a high of 96 today, so I really don't want to. If it was inside/beer night I might, but it's outside/no beer/direct sun/sweatfest. I just spent the past 3 weeks sweating nonstop...

I better figure out something to do with my time, because I have 10 more days until that AC job starts. I will never make it!

Boring updates on my life because the only thing in my life is film work right now

All right. 13 Hours is done! Which by the end was getting a little exhausting, so although I'll miss it, it is nice to sleep once in a while.

Here's something: I was getting so pissed off at the guys not listening to me by the end that I almost walked out more than once. This is not good because a) these boys are really nice -- they're not jerks, they were just ACTING like jerks (and I asked other people to make sure it wasn't my imaginiation/crabbiness), and therefore b) if I can't deal with them, I'm not going to make it. I was getting pretty upset.

But then I got an offer that may have made up for it, or at least distracted me: we're doing reshoots for Open, which I worked on with a bunch of these people last summer, and the DP on both Open and 13 Hours asked me if I want to AC for him on Open! Uh, ya know, sure, why not...? ;D Fuck yeah! And to all those naysayers who said dolly grip won't get you any closer to camera work, suck me, because it has! I should be freaked out because this is 16mm, but the DP teaches at MCTC so he's used to teaching, I know I'm cool with the idea of film (it sounds to me like being scared of effing up film is most people's main problem), and he's going to teach me how to load before we start. It'll be an easy AC job, the camera is pretty much all on tripods so there's little or no focus pulling or racking or whatever... (I have a lot to learn.) Anyway, this is me being psyched.

I also have an interview with people from a large locally based corporation that produces its own commercials in-house. ;) That's tomorrow. Gotta spend today preparing.

And, without going into detail, I got a couple of unexpected paychecks last week. It's like 2 days' worth of pay (bad pay for 2 days, really), but it's money I was not expecting, so that's pretty cool. Still, haven't made any significant money. I think after Open I'm going to have to get a job.

Thirteen Hours

I know I should blog... But I'm so tired! But I will. I'm working on a feature -- unpaid, but I'm a grip. It's FUN. The material is slightly lacking, I must admit, but I still actually want to see the movie. Regardless, the crew (AND CAST, fer once) are the most fun I've worked with. Actually, I've worked with a lot of them before. But it's funner than ever! I drive home with a sore face from laughing so much. Oh, and we do some work and shit too. I've been on dolly because the DP thinks I'm good at it, which is pretty sweet. (Someone else was doing it first, then they had me try it, and now they only let me! If I'm working on something else, it's all like, hey, where's Kristina, someone else do that, she has to come dolly grip!) The tough one was no track (and the wheels are always slightly wobbly even when locked, so you have no choice but to steer), fast backward move into a space with only about a foot on each side of us without hitting something (a car and a pillar), with a retarded PA wrangling my cables (so I had to avoid tripping over them -- the cables AND the retarded PA). And it may not have been my BEST work, but it WORKED! The rest has been good. I love it.

As much as I'd love to do this forever... I really need some paying work. Stat.

But I'm having a fucking good time, and I'm not doubting my decision to quit the doorknob job for a second. That place sucked. PAST TENSE NOW, thank you very much.

Oh, I tried to get OSHA to investigate them, and they said they would certainly do an inspection based on what I told them -- IF I was a current employee. Fucking government, the fact that I was surprised by that just goes to show what a dumbass I am... I told them repeatedly that I could not report the place when I worked there as I WOULD have been fired, much like the girl who was fired after filing a sexual harrassment complaint. Fucking shit. I give up. They're going to Send A Letter, though. Super awesome! That'll teach those mofos to poison their employees!

Oh well. Bygones. I do miss some of my coworkers, but really, I mean, not that I don't miss THEM, but I don't miss working with them if it means doing that instead of this. And I'll see them. So I guess I don't miss actually working with them. At least not as much as I thought. I will stay in touch.

Damn, I'm fuckin' pooped.

Happy 7-7-7!

If 2007 is the year of Kristina, you'd think today would be THE DAY of Kristina. I haven't had anything particularly amazing happen to me. Yet. I can't imagine what that would be, anyway.

S & D are at the wedding, hopefully drunk at the reception by now! It was awesome to have D stay for a few days. I -- LOVED it. He's -- hilARious. Now S has to come for a visit too!

If all goes well (which I actually don't think it WILL, but there's still a part of me that hopes), I should be busy through August. But... I have a 3-week unpaid job coming up (I hope NOT to be there for 3 weeks, but will work whenever I don't have paying work), then in Aug. we do pickup shots for the feature I did last summer. Between there, the one I'm not holding out much hope for, is a 4 week STRAIGHT (as in, no days off) paying job. The day rate is good, too. But. That starts in a little over a week and I applied about 2 weeks ago. Haven't heard back. Not a good sign. Sigh.

Other than that... I need to find paying work! Not panicking yet by any means, just need to kick myself in the ass and do it. I like doing all this free grip stuff, and it's valuable, but it doesn't pay the bills quite yet. The good thing is that it will eventually pay them, and better than most things I'd be doing in the biz. Still, I can't devote all my time to free stuff. Much as I wish I could.

It's ungodly outside. Upper-90s and humid. YUCKY. It's supposed to "cool down" to mid-80s by mon., but I think it's going to be a rough shoot. It's all in a warehouse, so I'm assuming it's not AC'd. But I'm also assuming it's at night (it's a horror movie where scary things happen while some bad guys are hiding in a warehouse -- touted as "Reservoir Dogs with ghosts"), so that should help a wee.

The weather is making my crabby, though.

I don't have to fuckin' get up tomorrow

'Cept I will.

Because Donnie is coming!

And I need to e-mail people.

But.

I can stay up late effing around on my 'puter if I want.

Because I don't have to go to work!