Busy is the New Normal

The past week has been full of various events, tasks, and other things that have kept me busy.  On Tuesday, I went to Glassman Media.  I changed up my schedule, so now I work at Glassman on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Karga Seven on Thursdays and Fridays.  Tuesday was a change of pace from my usual days at Glassman.  I typically have been busy the whole day, but my day was a bit less structured.  There was a bunch of equipment that needed to be organized, so I helped out with that.  I sorted some of the equipment, and we put some bags together that people will be able to check out.  They have cameras, chargers, batteries, and other such equipment.  Once we had everything arranged in a bag, my supervisor entered the information into an Excel spreadsheet.  She had some trouble printing the documents, so I helped her out a little bit.  It took me a while to figure it out!  Excel can be confusing!  In addition to that, I helped prepare some boxes that they needed to ship this past week.  That was okay, but not as exciting as what I've done before.  They asked me to organize some more after I was done getting the boxes ready.  The guy who was supposed to help me gave me vague instructions and didn't provide much assistance, so I did what I could.  After I was done there, I went back to the apartment and had a quick dinner.  Everyone in the UTLA program was required to attend a screening of "The Walking Deceased" at the UTLA center.  It's a movie that spoofs the TV series "The Walking Dead".  It was entirely made by UT alumni, so it was a big deal.  We watched the movie, and then we got pizza and asked questions to some members of the cast and crew.  I wasn't a fan of the movie, but it did have some good moments and humor.  After that was over, I went back to the apartment.  I did a little homework afterwards, but that was about it.  On Wednesday, my day at Glassman was basically the same as Tuesday.  I spent some time organizing equipment and some time getting those boxes ready for shipping.  They were completely ready by the end of the day, so that was nice.  I made a little progress on the equipment, but I'm hoping I don't have to mess with it much more.  After I was done there, I went home and had another quick dinner.  At 7:00, I had to go back to the UTLA center for my New Media & Emerging Entertainment class.  We started out by watching a depressing documentary on the visual effects industry.  One of my roommates is in visual effects, and he has recently started worrying about job opportunities.  The documentary certainly didn't help!  We got on to fun stuff after that.  We split up into groups, and we had to come up with a transmedia campaign to promote an event the professor told us about.  We had to list ideas of how we could promote the event pre-launch, during, and post-launch.  Each group had to get in front of the class and do a short presentation.  It was fun!  The professor also brought in some mini cupcakes, and that was cool!  After that, I just took it easy back at the apartment.  Thursday started off with a special errand.  Before I started at Karga Seven, I had to go to the post office and get my passport renewed.  My mom scheduled an appointment for me at a post office that's right along my way to Karga Seven.  I just had to stop at a different subway station and walk a little bit.  I showed up for my appointment at 10:30, and they got to me pretty fast!  I showed them my birth certificate and my application, but then I hit a roadblock.  They needed a passport photo, but they couldn't take my picture there because their camera was broken.  They told me how to get to a Rite Aid just down the road, so I walked there and got my passport photo.  Thankfully, it was very close to the post office.  Once I had my photo, everything else went reasonably well.  There were a few problems because I don't have a California ID and they weren't familiar with my bank (CEFCU).  I'd think it should be pretty easy to renew a passport as long as you're a United States citizen and resident, but this is the federal government we're talking about!  Soon enough, however, I was good to go.  They kept my birth certificate, but they're going to mail it back to my house soon.  My renewed passport should be there in 1-6 weeks.  On my first day of Karga Seven for the week, I did more of my usual work in postproduction.  I spent the time recording the text in an episode of their show about tornado survivors.  I also worked on character bios.  That night, we had another mandatory event.  We all had to go to a networking "mixer" at a bar in town.  (I put the word "mixer" in quotation marks because I think it's way too cutesy.)  When we got there, I spent plenty of time eating.  They had some free food, and I hadn't eaten dinner beforehand.  After I ate, I just sort of wandered around and talked to a few people.  Most of the people I "mixed" with were other UTLA students.  However, I did meet and talk to a few UT alumni who were at the event.  I knew I probably wouldn't get much out of it, but it was okay.  It was late when I got home from that, so I didn't do much else that night.  Friday was a more typical day at Karga Seven.  My supervisor was originally going to have me transcribe some videos, but I reminded her that I was supposed to work on character bios that hadn't been done.  That's what I ended up doing all day.  They changed up the format that I'm supposed to use for character bios, and it's much less labor-intensive.  In any case, I would rather write character bios than transcribe any day!  I was glad to do it!  After I got home from that, I essentially collapsed on the couch.  It had been a long week with a lot of random stuff!  I was tired and feeling very lazy, so I just watched GSN for a long time.  Eventually I decided that I wanted dinner, so a friend and I ordered $10 box from Pizza Hut.  I also threw in one of their "Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies"!  When I saw that it was going to take an hour, I kicked back and watched an episode of "The Middle".  I've gotten into that show since I went on the set visit!  I like it a lot!  The pizza got there about when I expected it to, and we devoured it!  I like the $10 boxes because they come with breadsticks and cinnamon sticks.  The chocolate chip cookie was also delicious!  After I ate that, I continued to laze around.  On Saturday, I slept in as usual.  I watched some TV and made a lunch from the little food I had left.  In the afternoon, I read a bunch more of that script we need to read for my Development class.  I impressed myself - I read over 60 pages!  I took a break from that, and then one of my roommates got back from something he had been doing.  I desperately needed to go grocery shopping, so we had planned a trip.  I was surprised at how much I bought at the grocery store!  This was the first time I had ever gotten a cart for myself!  I made a little list before we went, and that was also a first.  People at Jewel always say, "I only came here for a few things," and now I know what they mean!  All in all, I spent about $95.  With my Vons card, I saved $6.55!  I'm hoping that trip will get me through most of the rest of the semester.  After I got back from that, I made dinner using some of the food I had just bought!  I went to the hot tub and pool at night.  On Sunday, I got up and ate some continental breakfast.  They're not serving it next Sunday because it's Easter, so they had an Easter theme going on.  After that, I watched a sermon on my computer and had another "mini church service".  I would normally have gone to church, but this Sunday was special.  It was Huntington Beach day!  Just before noon, I took off with a little group to Huntington Beach.  It was me, 2 of my roommates, and another friend.  When we got into town, we went to Target to buy some stuff for the beach - a cooler, drinks, and whatnot.  We grabbed lunch at In-N-Out Burger, and then we went to the beach!  After I put on plenty of sunscreen, I spent the day adventuring in the water, playing sand volleyball, and throwing around a football.  There were some crazy waves out there!  I got battered a few times!  We stayed at the beach for quite a while, and we left for home in the early evening.  It's about a 1-hour drive, but it took a little longer on the way back because we had to detour for a while.  There was a big accident on the highway that caused a major jam, so we went around it.  Google Maps didn't exactly give the best directions, but we found our way.  When we got back, we ate at a restaurant called Gindi Thai.  It was fairly fancy and expensive, but we all found something affordable to eat.  They had delicious Pad Thai that was reasonably priced!  3 of us got that, actually.  Once we were done there, we came back to the apartment.  I tried to wash the remaining sand out of my trunks, and then I took a nice shower.  The sunscreen seemed to work fairly well, but my back and my upper chest are pretty red.  I didn't put sunscreen on those areas, so I can't complain.  (Usually I'll have somebody else sunscreen my back, but I skipped that.  I don't typically put sunscreen on my chest or stomach.)  It doesn't hurt now (the same night), but it could in the morning!  My Development class is cancelled this Monday, but I plan on getting up about when I normally would.  I still have one class on Monday, and it's also the day that registration for Jeopardy! online testing begins!  I'm going to give it another shot!