Life of late has been very busy, and very emotional. As most of you know, my girlfriend moved to the other side of the country this week. She was accepted to Princeton seminary, and is persuing a life as a minister. To answer the obvious question — don’t worry, her church is fine with us being together. Still, the prospect of three years in a long distance relationship is staggering, and the last time I wrote about an atheist and a minister, it was a screenplay about the end of the world.
No joke.
Still, I’ll see her in a few weeks, and we’ll take it one step at a time.
She also went to the hospital this week after falling through a glass table. Twenty three stitches, two days before she had to fly across the country.
In other news, my job is in full swing. I write for Play magazine, as a staff writer. I believe my official title is Anime Editor, but I’m not sure till I get my business cards on Tuesday. I’m helping head up their new magazine, Rocket … which will be like a mirror image of Play. Play features game reviews and a small section on anime; Rocket will be the reverse.
My first review is in the next issue. I’m on the masthead, and my “staff favorites” are posted up alongside everyone elses’. (Mind you, they aren’t my real favorites — I was instructed to not submit series which remain unliscensed. I’ll see if I can change that; it’s a sin to not have Honey and Clover on that list.)
It’s not the first thing I’ve written for Play — many of you may recall the LA Times supplement I wrote with them at the end of June. They were satisfied with my work then, and have asked me to be a part of the permanent team. I’ll do games, but am primarily the anime division.
It’s difficult to write about my honest thoughts here; I’m worried that my boss will read my blog. (Not that I have anything even remotely negative to post about Play.) But I don’t want to gush about my experience, either. Too much positivity, and I’ll come off as a giddy fan-girl. All that aside, I’m really excited to work with them, and I feel really lucky to have what I consider a dream job.
I mean, I’m going to get boxes of anime and manga and games. That’s crazy cool.
On a more sober note, this week marked the passing of my Uncle, Don. He was part of my family in New Orleans, and I can guess this is another miserable moment in a year of disasters for them. It was a surprise, too; a surgery that went sour. Uncle Don got me into Led Zepplin when I was a kid, and he was the first one to give me a taste of bourbon, my now-favorite drink. I held a toast for him on Wednesday night; he’ll be greatly missed by both myself and my family. New Orleans simply won’t feel the same without him.
Two days ago, I went to Escondido with Darren Lanning. It was a late night trip for a very sick cat. Darren’s 15 year old shadow wasn’t doing too good, and since he was leaving so late at night, I thought I’d go with to make sure he didn’t fall asleep at the wheel (or cry himself off the road). It was a really relaxing trip, once the cat was okay. I played Lost in Blue for almost six hours on Friday, and was blissfully removed from all of the responsiblities I had in Los Angeles. I needed a reboot, and I got a great one.
My life has been both grand and stressfull lately, both extraordinary and sad. I still haven’t finished my reel for SNL/MADtv, nor have I finished editing Snake in the Apartment, the new video by SinkingCar I am writing three shows, and performing at three theaters. I’m overwhelmed sometimes, and very lonely the next. Regardless, I can’t help but feel like things are finally happening the way I want them to. My social life is at an all time low, but my productivity is through the roof. I hope that when I finish all of these projects, I’ll still have friends interested in seeing them.
Finally, yesterday, Morning in Compton has been chosen as a top-ten video on the web by The Daily Reel, a new online magazine about the best in web-video. Congrats goes out to both Jim and Bobby. It’s nice to get some press on your first short.