I don't know why I decided to post this photo; it just seemed fitting, somehow. Maybe because I finally talked to Joey for the first time since he's been back.
As a film student, you forget how much January and February usually suck. You have the usual slew of directing projects and, if you're lucky, you have a three-weekend major grant to take up all your time, energy, and creativity. I hardly noticed the last three Januaries and Februaries because it's the busiest time of the year for film kids. And now that I have none of that to focus on, this time of year turns out to be really, really boring. Sure, you have... um... Groundhog Day to look forward to. But dear god, if something interesting doesn't happen soon, I might just have to pull a Joey and wander off to South America or something. I've always wanted to go to Argentina.
The one vaguely interesting thing that's happening is that tomorrow night Larkin and Alex are doing the music round at trivia. There have been about 45 emails amongst us today honing the list down to less than 20, so that might be fun. In any case, it will be something other than reading online news and watching movies all night.
Don't hate me because I'm lame. In a former life, I was kind of interesting.
I have to say, my friends (especially all of you who read this thing) have been pretty awesome about Pogo dying. It seems like everyone knows how it feels to lose a pet, and that's weirdly comforting somehow. Marc Lummis even called and left me a message to say he was sorry. Marc Lummis! He who rarely communicates! So that's all been very nice, and thanks, guys.
The one nice thing about Pogo's death was that we didn't have to put her to sleep. I hate doing that, and although I completely understand that it's often necessary to make the pain stop for a pet, I don't like the idea of ending a life prematurely. While I would never have let her suffer, it makes me feel much better that she died naturally, and that she lived her complete life. Does that make sense? David Sedaris has a piece about putting pets to sleep and how painful it is in Me Talk Pretty One Day, which is one of my favorite books, and when I read it for the first time I just cried and cried and cried. Another oddly therepeutic book, should you ever lose a kitty, is The Best Cat Ever by Cleveland Amory. I cried there, too, because I read it right after Penny died, when I was 13. I related to it so much that I wrote an essay about it for my application to Lick... so in a way, Penny got me into high school. Anyway, I've kind of come to terms with the fact that it was time for Pogo to go, and that she'll never really be gone. Sometimes it almost feels like she's sitting next to me on the couch.
So goodnight.
P.S. Want to know how boring I am? The highlight of my night tonight was during Jon Stewart's interview with Randy The Judge from American Idol on The Daily Show, and Randy said "Did you see the show where [Simon] walked out on us?" and Jon Stewart said "I don't watch the show." Jon Stewart, you are the most amazing person alive.
