Protein

I've ingested so many carbs over the past two days off, I finally broke down and forced the other half to throw some burgers on. My body was ready to shut down.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that I completed a third and a 3 1/2 draft of "Me & Simon Baker". I arrived home on Saturday, to find a letter from one of the many agencies I had "applied" to. THEY WANT TO READ MY SCRIPT. Frankly, I was hoping this day would come soon, but not before I had the chance to make some additional tweaks on the script, i.e complete another draft. Thus, my original plans to sit down and crank out some serious work on the Chris McCaleb co-project (my writing partner), were set aside. I spent about 8 hours; with several healthy breaks (healthy in time, not in the food I consumed) yesterday, working on a third draft of the script. No major changes were done, but I found plenty of formatting mistakes and a few foolish dialogue choices to take up my time in this draft. I found plenty more of my favorite screenwriting pet peeves. The "Character begins to do something". All of those occurrences had to be changed to "Character does something". I don't know why it is engrained in my head to make the characters "begin a task". They're hard to spot, unless you go through and look for them. How I loathe them. I completed the draft, read it through out loud; to the other half, and called it good. Some good suggestions from the other half, and some others he harped on from the first draft; which I continued to ignore this time around.

Today, I took another quick pass (thus the third and a half draft), looking at only the action sections; and found a few more things to update...including a few more of the dreaded "begins to" BS.

I plan to go to our corner printing store in the morning, and have them print and bind it. Then, it's off to the ether that is our mail system, to then end up on the desk of a possible agent.

What I've found most fascinating about this latest immersion into the world of "Me & Simon Baker" is how attached I've become to the characters and the situations. I'm pleased with my work in a way I've never felt on this particular project before. I feel like it's begun to really breathe, and that there are many situations and character traits from everyone which are quite sympathetic. I like what I've done here. That seems like an obvious necessity, but frankly, I haven't felt this way since sometime during the creation of "Sid's Apple".

I've been thinking about the story all day; as if I've seen the actual film, and it resonated with me. I know I'm completey unbiased, but it makes me feel good that I care for the characters. I've got a great sense of pride and excitement over this piece. I hope it becomes "the little engine that could".

In other news, my Mother is doing quite well. She's back @ our local hospital, doing lots on her own. She will return to the surgery center tomorrow for follow up, and then it seems she can get back on track...with her search for a new home, and a move toward a new life. I wish her luck.

We lost two folks from the employ of my store last week. I miss them greatly, but it seems it may be to my own benefit. It appears as though I may be the recipient of a promotion (or as I will call it, my "un-demotion"). So, that's going well.

The other half is still searching for work, but found an ally in the offices that handle veteran's affairs. More on that as it happens.

We have now hiked a monumental 19 times over the past month or so. I hope we can continue it; as it seems to be making a hefty difference. I definitely have better lung capacity. And I feel wonderful taking it all in; in the great outdoors. Now, about that layer of smog when we reach the top...hmm.

I'm in pretty good spirits at the moment, and am hoping that y'all are too. Later.