5% of 6,378, Part 2

I mentioned in an earlier post that I submitted two screenplays to the Nicholl Fellowship competition. This competition is "the" contest for screenwriters and is a very big deal. Yesterday, I got an email telling me my "A Piece of Cake" script didn't make it to the quarterfinal round. I was sad but they had a record number of entries this year (6,378) and only 321 made the quarterfinal round. Around 5%.

I was flipping through the channels and saw a special on the Black Dahlia murder, which figures prominently in the other screenplay I submitted. I joked to John that it was a sign my other script made it. I didn't really believe that, but the thought made me curious enough to go check my email again. Sure enough, there was an email from oscars.org in there . . . I knew it. Another rejection. I opened the email and only read one word: "Congratulations!"

I ran screaming down the stairs. "JOHN! JOHN! JOHN!" John came bounding out of the den, his hand fluttering over his heart like some fragile old lady (sorry, John . . . you did!). I yelled at him, "I made it! I made it!" Once he realized no one was in mortal danger, he was jumping up and down with me. It was such a great moment because this was his victory, too. Without his support, this would have never happened.

So I'll include some of the text of the email here for more information:

"Congratulations! You have advanced into the Quarterfinal Round of the 2009 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. In so doing, Script Girl is one of only 321 entries to survive the First Round. With a record-breaking 6,380 scripts entered, the initial round was more competitive than in any previous year. To let you know something about the selection process, Script Girl was evaluated by three judges drawn from a diverse group of local film professionals. After scores were tallied, the highest scoring scripts advanced to the Quarterfinals. During the Quarterfinal Round, your script will be read by at least two judges. As was the case in the First Round, these judges will read the scripts without seeing application forms; they will know nothing about you other than what is on your script’s pages. We expect that about 110 to 120 of the Quarterfinal scripts will advance to the Semifinal Round. For a list that will be forwarded to agents, development executives, managers and producers who request it, we shall use the contact information that you have given us."

And that's what it is. I entered not as much for the honor, but to make that list that will be passed around. I hope something will come of this. But even if nothing else happens, I could live off of this achievement for years, really! If I can make the quarterfinal round of this competition, I know I'm doing something right. It makes me dizzy to just think about it. I hunch over my little computer every day, doing my best but never knowing if what I'm doing will survive in the "real world." Now I know! And I can't stop dancing or smiling about it!

Catching Up

I haven't been keeping up as much as I would like to lately. It's the paradox of blogging . . . when I have time to do it, I have nothing to talk about. When I actually have stuff to do, I have no time to blog.

Here's a pic I've been meaning to post. This blanket is a token of my retirement from sewing. It is such a dumpy blanket! The ties are bunchy, the batting is bumpy and the binding is a joke. And I hate it because the fabric is cute AND expensive. I originally wanted to do a gray back, but nooooo . . . my mom convinced me to do the Georgia red. I asked several people about it bleeding but they promised if I washed the 2 fabrics separately first, it would be fine. WRONG! Not only is the blanket dumpy . . . it's now PINK! Here I am, trying to make a manly blanket for Charlie and it comes out pink. The more I wash it . . . the pinker it gets! I hate sewing. Hate, hate, hate. I'll stick to paper, thank you.

We finally all got over our various ailments, thank goodness. John had double ear infections, Charlie had double ear infections and bronchitis and I had one ear infection, a sinus infection and bronchitis. That was one busy week, hopping from doctor to pharmacy over and over again. John had to go to Scout Camp for 5 days in the middle of this, of course. It actually wasn't too bad. I had been dreading John being gone for months, so it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And yet . . . Charlie had diarrhea in the tub. He does that ONLY when John is out of town. No joke. But, on the bright side, though Charlie was very sick he didn't wake up once during any of the nights John was gone, so I got rest. But then, of course, the first night John gets back, Charlie was up half the night. I can't win.

The Road Show is keeping me busy. It's a weird experience. Some days are very hard. I will never understand why people wage campaigns against something that has nothing to do with them. So what if you don't like dancing or singing or acting? You don't have to do it! It has nothing to do with you! Stephanie and I have gotten a lot of flack . . . not from the youth, who are the only ones required to do it (and are having a blast, BTW) . . . but from people who should thank us for the insane amount of effort we're putting into this show. Because of us, they don't have to have anything to do with it. I don't understand why some feel the need to bash something just because they aren't comfortable with it. I don't play sports . . . I don't like sports. But I don't throw a fit when we have a church softball tournament. I could care less. I just don't get it. You'd think we were putting on a burlesque show by the way some people react to this. The Stake asked us to put on a show, and we're putting together an AMAZING one.


On a happier note, I've had so many wonderful experiences working on this show I could've never anticipated. Stephanie, the director, and I have become great buddies. She is so talented and I've learned so much from her. I thought she was insane to want to do so much dancing. I tend to see limitations whereas she only sees possibilities. I'm very grateful to get to work with someone so positive . . . and another twisted artsy soul like me!


As I mentioned in a previous post, the Primary's part in the Road Show got off to a rough start. But since then, it's been nothing but fun and joy. I love those kids to death, I honestly do. It's so fun to get to interact with them outside of church on Sunday. They are hilarious . . . I seriously think I'll have to devote an entire post to the hilarious things these kids say. For example, one girl gave the closing prayer for one of our practices. She was completely sincere and serious when she gave the following prayer:


"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for this day and that we could come to this activity. Thank you for letting us come here to learn High School Musical and 'Burn, Baby, Burn.' We pray no one will get hurt before the show. We pray the show will be good. Amen."


They are all such loving, good kids. They have all caught the "bug" and get more and more excited as time gets by. I love to see them enjoy this and look forward to this . . . it gets me pumped, too! I cannot wait to see them dancing to "Disco Inferno" in sequins and afros (yes, the boys are going to be wearing 'fros!). It's especially neat to see the potential a lot of them have. We seriously have a couple of little stars in our branch that have real talent. It's just a lot of fun seeing that come out of them.


Last night was the first night we met with the youth. I was in charge of choreographing and teaching the YW a dance to "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (holla at me 90s kids! hee hee). I have been terrified, literally, for a month about this. I have never worked with YW before. Teenagers totally intimidate me, especially since what I needed them to do was potentially "lame." I made up a dance that I thought was cute, but you never know, right? I tried to be positive when I came into YW on Sunday to tell them about it. They were totally silent. I asked them if they had any questions and one of them asks, "Do we have to do it?" Oh great. I was nauseous even as we pulled into the parking lot last night. John had given me a little blessing a few days before, but it had worn off (JK). As I walked into the room, one of the girls ran up to me and told me how she saw a video of me dancing to "Cotton-Eyed Joe" at a dance like, 10 years ago (she's the little sister of a friend of mine from high school ). Oh no. Not good. I still would like to get my hands on that video . . . anywho, the girls started to do this little dance together. I watched them and was like, "Is that the Hoedown Throwdown?" (I'm somewhat hip.) They giggled and said yeah. I told them we could work it into the dance, but first I wanted to show them part of my dance. I barely got through the first 4 counts before they were squealing with excitement. "This is so cute!" "We're going to have the best show!" "This is so fun!"


THANK YOU!


You have no idea how good (and at peace!) that made me feel! They were so into it and were talking about putting their own practices together outside of church. I would never have imagined a response like that, ever! Yay! I seriously had a blast doing that with them. It was so fun. I'm grateful to have a chance to be a little "choreographer." I love dancing and doing stuff like that . . . which I don't often get to do. I'm so relieved that these girls are excited. It just makes everything that much more fun.


Oh, and I guess I should recap what happened last week as well. My brother-in-law Paul (who is playing Frankenstein), Stephanie's hubby Christiam (Igor) and I (I'm going to be a zombie girl or something) had our first "Thriller" run through. I did the choreography on that one . . . I just took moves from the music video. It went so well and I think people are going to die when they see us doing the head ticks and know that we're going to do "Thriller." I'm so glad to not be huge and pregnant so I actually get to be IN the show this year. Dancing while dressed as a zombie? That's like, Autumn nirvana, for real!


Speaking of zombies and dancing . . . that Shane Sparks routine on SYTYCD this week was awesome! I usually don't like his stuff, but last night was amazing. Then, Wade Robson performed "Ramalama" with some of the contestants from Season 2. I was expecting a little more, so I was disappointed. But, it was amazing to see Hok and Jamie perform "The Hummingbird and the Flower" routine again. No routine has yet to beat that one for me yet.

I just realized this post is insanely long. I'll have to post some new card pics and stuff later . . . I gotta go!

Too Much

Don't let these scenes of summer fun fool you.

Right now, Charlie's in the next room hacking his lungs out while he watches his "Imagination Movers" DVD. John's upstairs half dead and I'm down here blogging to stay awake. Yes, another cold has wiped out our family yet again. Last night I told John rolled his eyes when I told him we needed to make a family suicide pact. I bet he thought more seriously about that around 3 in the morning when Charlie was croaking (yet again!), "Mommy! My daddy!"

This past week has been crazy, so I'm not surprised that I got sick. But, I got sick after I got everything done, so I can look at that as a blessing.

I've been working like crazy on our Primary Program and the Road Show. On Wednesday, I was getting ready for a rehearsal that night when I got a call asking me to make some baby shower invitations. Since the woman doing the shower is moving in less than a month, and the mom the shower is for is about to pop, the invitations needed to be done by Sunday. Usually when I make cards in bulk, I'll make one really nice one and have it reproduced at a local print shop. Well, I found out the print shop would be closed all weekend. I don't trust Kinko's or any other print shop, so it left me no choice but to make them all myself. It was about an hour later when Charlie woke up from his nap with a fever. Not again.

Well, the rehearsal went great and was actually tons of fun. The Primary kids are getting used to the idea of dancing in front of people . . . so much that we couldn't get them to stop, even for brownies! Let's hope the youth are as excited . . . yeah, right.

That night was spent on the couch with Charlie. Even though I was dying for a nap, I had to go to the dermatologist only to find out I have some kind of funky excema (sp?) on my hands that is, as he put it, "Notoriously hard to get rid of." Why do I only have gross things wrong with me? My mom said she could see me being one of those little old ladies that wears gloves all the time to cover up their nasty diseases. Thanks mom. Maybe you can glue sequins to the left one in memory of M.J.

Luckily, John had work off on Friday and he helped me put the cards together. He's brandishing the scissors at the camera because he told me not to take a picture of him. Too bad, ha! I only had to make about 25 but me and my big ideas . . . of course I had to do something insane. The mom's nursery is going to be a barnyard theme so I made barn cards. Cute but corny. I guess that's the M.O. for baby showers, right?

Sometime on Friday (I literally don't remember when), I finished the Road Show script that I had promised the director I would give her on Sunday. Then Saturday was the 4th of July. I usually dread these holidays because the house is packed with people. I was especially grumpy about it this time around because I wanted a break. But it was actually fun. We set up a Slip 'n' Slide in the backyard and I couldn't resist trying it out. It was a lot of fun. Painful fun, that is. I have bruises on my knees, elbows, shoulders and hips. Mari and I then took an impromptu field trip to Ross, sans kiddos . . . talk about independence! I got a skirt, shirt and shorts for under $30.

Some time that evening, I started to feel a little congested . . . which has now turned into yet another full-blown cold. John made a doctor's appointment, so he must be feeling pretty nasty. I pretty much have the rest of the week "off" before things get crazy again. John's gone to Scout Camp from Saturday to Wednesday, so that's the next big adventure. Gotta go . . . I'm hoping Charlie will sleep so I can, too!