I didn't want to let a week go by without posting.

Monday night was very loud at the local music show. We were filming a local punk/pop band. They were pretty good and I was moving my camera almost the entire shoot. I learn more each time I participate and I have a lot of fun. I'm back working in a nearby state at the research company and getting lots of compliments. I stayed home tonight because of an ice storm. My car might get looked at on Thursday night. I'll keep you all posted.

Lots and lots of working going on.

Quick update on my car first: I'm still driving Susan's spare because mine made a funny engine noise after we finally got it unstuck on Sunday. I may take it to Mark & Carol's on Saturday or ask them to look at it when they come here next Thursday. Another option, besides buying a new one, is to have Susan's mechanic take a look at it. Oy!

I've been working all week. (yeah! $$$$) The 3 to 5 day filing project turned out to be bigger than the company thought it would be so turned into more like 5 1/2 or 6 and they asked me to stay an extra two days to assist with a different project. When I finally got the filing done I felt a great sense of accomplishment. The staff keeps saying how grateful they are to have received competent help. :) Next week and the week after I will be returning to the research company who specifically requested my services as their receptionist.

On the TV front, I still haven't heard from my cousin. I'll email Aunt Nancy next week if I still haven't heard. I helped film the city council meeting tonight. It was short and funny and I got some more good practice in. The director is asking more from us now since there are several of us who have logged a lot of camera time.

Last, but not least, I've been invited to my cousin's (Jenny) baby shower next month. It will be at my Uncle's house in the eastern part of the state. I can't wait to see her and help her celebrate this great occasion. I thought Dad would be going with me but it turns out that he has a big fundraiser for his job that weekend.

Whew!

That was a job! Susan and I spent most of today getting our cars unstuck from the ice. I am really grateful to Susan because she picked at, and shoveled out, a lot of ice from around my wheels before working on her own car. Then I rocked them both back and forth while she pushed. Finally we were out but it took hours. Unfortunately, all three of our cars are making funny noises. Hers are clunking and mine has a deep throaty engine noise. Oh well, she's going to ask her mechanic to take a look at it because I couldn't get it unstuck yesterday (even AAA couldn't help) to take it to my friends. I'm going to take her extra car to work tomorrow and we'll see what happens.

BTW, our furnace is also on the fritz. It appears that the part that they replaced (after I came home at X-mas and found the house at 40 degrees) may be bad. Susan called the furnace folks and they said they think they received a bad batch of that particular part. They're coming to look at it tomorrow and, in the meantime, we keep hitting the reset button after we realize it's gone out again.

It's been a long week.

I've spent a lot of time driving this week. Tuesday I got the oil changed in Steve's car and then picked him up to do errands and make a great big circle through the local area. I was exhausted when I got home and then a storm moved in. Wednesday I managed to dig out and get to work by 1:45pm. The employer and the temp agency were very understanding about it. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it back up our hill to get home that night until the sand truck came and rescued me from a scary experience. Susan was a big help until the sand truck showed up. (I got stuck, diagonally, across the road about 100 feet from the crest of the hill because it was covered in glare ice. I called Susan on my cell phone and she drove to the crest and then walked on the berm down to me. Together we figured out how to get my car turned around and I started inching back down the hill.) Yesterday I worked a full day (doing filing at a local company that does injection molding) and then was a camera operator at a local school committee meeting. I even got to do a voiceover telling people to stay tuned for it! I loved being able to practice the things I learned at the live music program shoot to help make this meeting more interesting for the viewing audience. The director liked it too. (I found out last night that our director recently worked on "Throwdown with Bobby Flay". I want to ask him which episode so I can watch for his name.) I was actually watching the meeting on TV tonight after work and I realize I still need to practice keeping things in focus but I'm glad I moved the camera around a lot. I also saw the live music show and my name in the credits. That was an awesome thing to see! Anyway, I'm exhausted because after the school committee meeting ended around 10:20pm last night, I had to drive to Steve's. I slept in his (broken!) recliner and we got up early and drove to my job. Then he took his car, did what he needed to do, and came back to pick me up at 5:30pm so I could come home. Tomorrow morning I'm going to drive to my friends' (Mark, Carol, & Jeremy) house to see if Mark can fix my car for just the cost of parts. I am scheduled to finish the filing job Monday or Tuesday (or Wednesday if I need to keep using Steve's car because I'll have to take him to the doctor's on Tuesday) and I've been asked to go back to the research lab for two weeks starting on the 25th. I'll probably accept the job if I don't hear from my cousin this weekend and if my car is okay. Oh, that reminds me----THE WRITER'S STRIKE IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that's it for this post. :)

Boy am I tired! (But I had a good day)

I spent most of today driving around the area putting about 180 miles on Steve's car. I took Steve to a Dr.'s appointment and then into the office so he could fax the Dr.'s note to his worker's comp. insurance company. After I took him home I went to my dentist's office for a routine cleaning (my teeth got excellent reviews, btw) and then came home for a quick dinner before heading to operate a camera on the local, live, music show.

At tonight's shoot I learned a lot. (remember, this is only my second time working with a dollied {on wheels} camera) I learned some really helpful tips to truck (move the whole camera & tripod assembly, usually to the left or right, as opposed to just turning the camera itself) better: Move the dolly in a circle first to get the wheels all turned in the direction you want to move and take small steps sideways, with your knees bent, as you move. This should provide a smooth motion. I got lots of other good feedback and advice as well. I tend to go too slow with my shots as opposed to too fast and I really like to get a lot of feedback from the director via my headset. I'm sure this will improve as I progress. The folks on the show are really good about answering questions and demonstrating technique.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, there don't seem to be many women involved with this show right now (and I think a lot of production jobs in general are held by men). The singer/songwriter/keyboard player, who was the sole performer (she was really good) on the show tonight, is female so at least I wasn't the only woman in the room this time. It's cool though, I actually feel like I'm doing something important for women while I'm doing something I love. One of the guys made a joke about the fact that there weren't any other women present but he also said that that hadn't always been the case.

Oh, and I have a temp job doing filing Wednesday through Friday and possibly Monday and Tuesday. I still haven't figured out what to do about my car and I know I can't borrow Steve's forever.

Weather issues

Well, Steve and I never made it to town today. The drive to his house was fine but, as we were leaving, whiteout snow squalls came in. We ended up watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation" all afternoon as the weather was switching from good to bad and back again. I was finally able to drive home around 5pm. It was really weird having whiteout conditions without a blizzard.

Busy week...

I worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday I helped set up for the shoot of the City Council meeting. Bryn (the access coordinator for the TV station) brought his own time-lapse camera and filmed us setting up. He let me see the footage before we left and it looked really cool. Then, during the shoot itself, we had a few technical difficulties at first. Al (the executive director of the station) was able to fix the problems and we weren't knocked off the air this time. Bryn asked the camera operators for some new shots and he did some new things as a director. It was nice and I learned some new things. I goofed at one point, though, because Bryn asked me for a "crowd shot" and it took me a minute to figure out that he wanted me to turn around and get a shot of the audience.

Friday I faxed Steve's "out of work" doctor's note to his worker's comp insurance company and then drove out to the eastern part of the state. I made it to Steve's mom's around 5 PM. We had a lovely dinner of salmon, rice, and salad with Klondike bars for dessert. I got to see some of "Stargate Atlantis". Unfortunately, I didn't feel well so I spent a bit of time in the bathroom.

I did get between eight and nine hours of sleep last night and was able to make a pancake breakfast for Steve and his mom this morning. Then I drove Steve back home. It's been snowing but the roads were okay. The dogs really missed me and gave me a noisy greeting when I returned to Susan's. I'm really tired, and possibly fighting a cold because my throat hurts, so I've been vegging out watching "Lost". I'm soooooo glad that I borrowed season three from Steve.

Tomorrow and Monday I'll be driving Steve to some appointments and I have a dentist appointment on Monday as well.

More updates

Okay, first, YEAH GIANTS!!! 'Nuff said about that.

I am working this week. The temp agency called me Monday morning. I am working at a research lab, as a switchboard operator and receptionist, in a nearby state. The commute is an hour but the people are nice and I'm so busy that I'm not bored. I worked today and I'll be there tomorrow. After that, they'll let me know if they need me for Thursday and Friday. In the meantime, I got a voicemail from the temp agency about a job for next week. This helps a lot with my fears about money.

Steve's still recuperating at his mom's. I'll probably pick him up this weekend.

I had the best time operating a camera at the live, local music show last night! I was moving the camera almost constantly and got to pick most of my own shots. It was the first time I dealt with a non-stationary studio camera. It was a fabulous experience and I learned a lot. I think I smiled the entire time. The music was really good too. I can't wait to go back next week.

I'm exhausted:(

It's been a whirlwind of a few days. I mailed my resume and letters to Jason in L. A. on Thursday and was trained at my temp job for three hours. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to editing class at the TV station. The teacher and I are going to try to arrange a one-on-one session where we can go over my Martin Luther King Day rough cut to get it to the right length. I also have some questions for her about iMovie (I was so busy on Thursday that I left my notebook at home).

Friday I worked all day and drove carefully home in the rain, slush, and ice. I got home, had dinner, and had a nice conversation with Susan about my day at work. Unfortunately, after dinner I got a call from Steve with bad news. He slipped on the ice last night, while canvassing, and fell down some stairs. He has a hairline fracture of his cocyx (he broke his tailbone) and his shoulder had been dislocated (that's happened before so he just pushed it back into place himself!). This means he'll be out of work for a month. The upside of this is that I will have his car for the month, so I can chauffer him around and help him with stuff, and I have some breathing room to decide how to deal with mine. (I don't feel safe driving mine because the noise is getting louder.) Steve's in a lot of pain but he keeps trying to do stuff. I think I finally got through to him though after he tried to carry a bag of groceries. Oy!

Anyway, today---after not getting enough sleep the last two nights---I got up and went into town to get Steve's car (his boss drove him home last night) and then drove to his house. I took him to see some friends, pick up his prescription, and get groceries. I got home around 7pm and ate dinner. Then Susan drove me back into town around 8:30pm to get my car. She followed me home to be on the safe side.

Tomorrow, I'm going to drive Steve to his mom's house where we'll watch the Superbowl. I like both the Giants and the Patriots but I'll probably root for the Pat's. (It's nice to root for the winning team and I don't think the Giants can pull this off. Who knows, though. They could surprise everyone. I didn't even think they'd win the last game they played.) Steve will probably stay at his mom's all week so he's not alone and I'll come back on Monday so I can participate in the television show that night.

Now though, I want to finish what I need to do and go to bed.