Paranormals

I was lucky enough to find my niche in college early winter quarter of my freshman year.  FPC has always been my group of friends and collaborators.  This year, we selected and made the film Paranormals.  Watch the epic trailer HERE.  Every year we strive to improve our technical skills and teach people new skills at the same time.  Every year we succeed, but I think this year we deserve to pat ourselves on the backs a little.

We anticipated many of the major problems we have encountered in the past, and this forward thinking allowed us to avoid several disasters (knock on wood).  Even a very delirious incident of dropping the hard-drive containing our footage, and unfortunately a very large amount of Anthony's personal files, did not set us back on our timeline.  

Not only technically did we advance, but (this may just be my bias) this project is hilarious and very fun to watch.  I am proud to have been a part of it and this has been a superb way to end my career as president of this club.  

If you are interested in attending our premiere, you can RSVP HERE.  Please come out tomorrow at 5:30pm to the Media Theater and show your support of all the film students who have worked so hard to make this movie the glorious masterpiece it is!

Healing

So although I followed the doctor's orders and didn't move for a week, then continued to take it easy and ice my back every chance I got, I have not really gotten better.  In fact, my leg and foot have started hurting as well.  I decided to go to another doctor and she had xrays done, as well as prescribing me muscle relaxants.  she also referred me to a chiropractor.  Just a few days later a chiropractor came into the Capitola mall location of Super Silver and said he just joined a practice and was giving out coupons for free sessions with him at his new location.  Well what are the odds!?!

Today I took up Mark Tenenbaum's offer and was amazingly thrilled with my first ever experience with a chiropractor.  He was very gentle and explained everything he was doing so I understood the process.  Also the coupon was for a free 25 minute session and I started my session no later than 3 and was finished at 3:45 so you do the math...woo hoo extra time!  The best part is that its actually not really expensive.  45 dollars for 45 minutes and with my health insurance, I only pay 20 dollars.  A really positive turn in the extremely stressful week I've had.

I have embarked on the journey of providing the Film Production Coalition with their first ever club tshirt.  It is proving to be no simple task.  First was the complicated task of getting everyone to agree on a design and color, as well as getting the color of the shirt to work well with the design people wanted.  Once that was taken care of, I submitted a purchase order to get the company their money for printing the shirts, however, this also proved challenging, as several of the colleges that provided our club money have not gotten the paperwork taken care of to give us the money.  One road block after another...don't you just love bureaucracy...it's the most efficient way to get things done.  That's just how I see it.

Is anyone out there frustrated about the inefficient methods of some organizations?

Busy once again...

I just received a notice in my email box that I had a new comment on one of my posts and realized I have completely been neglecting my blog.  Time has gotten away from me lately; work has been hectic, we've nearly finished shooting Paranormals, and I have managed to injure my back to add complication to everything else.

My schedule started to get hectic when one of the stores I work at was flooded in Capitola Village.  Not only did that turn schedules upside down, it presented the dilemma of how do we sell things there while construction occurs to replace all of the damaged flooring and walls.  Well the mayor of Capitola had a tent set up and that has been the solution for the time being.  While carrying one of the many boxes of jewelry from my car to the tent, as we do every morning to make sure our jewelry is safe overnight, I managed to bend over too far while trying to lift and voila, pulled a muscle in my back.  I missed a week of work and school laying in bed, as the doctor told me laying down and icing my muscle would help me recover faster.  It was an absolutely torturous time to do absolutely nothing, I used to think how glorious it would be, but no...it's insanely boring and made me kind of crazy to be honest.  I thought of all the things I needed to do and literally couldn't move to do.  Driving is apparently the worst posture for your back when injured and the break from sitting in the car actually did make a difference I think because I am starting to feel improvement.  However, since returning to school and work, my muscles continue to seize up every now and then as I'm walking around and I end up frozen in my tracks till it passes.

In other news: I am nearly a college graduate!  Holy C*&^, I'm actually almost done.  When I think about being done, its panicking, where do I go from here and will I be able to accomplish what I want to accomplish.  We'll see what the end of the school year brings.  Is anyone else busy and crazy right now? Any good tips for relieving my lower back pain?

Stiff

No, this is not about the book Stiff, although I am enjoying it quite a bit.  This is about my back.  Chronic back problems run in my family and I just had my first lasting run in with our health issues.  While lifting and moving a box at work, I pinched a nerve in my lower back.  It was agonizing and I could barely sit up in my car to drive home.  Yesterday was filled with ice packs, Tiger Balm (no, not the energy drink...its like Icy Hot), and laying down with my feet in the air.  After an extremely painful night of trying to find a comfortable way to sleep, I am feeling much better and can lay in most positions comfortably.  I guess sleep fixes anything, even if it's extremely fitful sleep. 


There were some good things about yesterday though.  I went to Oakes College Senate and they awarded Film Production Coalition 100 dollars for our ongoing project Paranormals.  It was not an easy meeting to sit through, but it was well worth the discomfort to know that we will be able to host our film premiere at the media theater on May 28th.

The other good thing about yesterday was helping Anthony with his film assignment.  In film directing, they were asked to film someone for 3 minutes without the camera moving and without the actor talking.  After the senate meeting this was easy for me.  I was in a semi-raw emotional state because of my back pain and I was also feeling reflective after the senate meeting because everyone there seemed really nice and there are times when I'm mad that I felt so alienated from my college freshman year.  My teacher for the required Oakes intro writing course continuously made a point to focus on the only two "white" students in the class and try to highlight the ways in which our life growing up was different from other students in the class.  I found this hurtful and inappropriate, especially considering he was making many assumptions about every student, purely based on the way they looked, about the way they grew up.  I felt very withdrawn and embarrassed to be picked on in this way.  He continuously insinuated that I was "part of the problem" and never listened when I tried to tell him about how and where I grew up.  This drove me away from involvement with my college, even though I picked Oakes because of its diversity and focus on equality and human rights. 

So when Anthony turned the camera on, I just cried.  There was too much going on for me to contemplate inside my head everything that I was thinking.  Questions about every step ring in my head and usually I just ignore them because I am really happy with my life, but yesterday was just not a good day overall and I was extremely frustrated with my inability to move. I think the shot actually came out really nice because just when I start to really cry, my dog came to my rescue and licked my face.  Its an up and down static shot and I wonder what people will see in me when they see it. 

I often find myself asking if I made the right choices, picked the right path; even though I love everything I am doing right now, I always see a million different directions I could have gone in.  I guess that's the consequence of taking, "you can do anything you want to" to heart.  Never wanting to limit myself has time and again led to me spreading my time thin, but I always come through things thankful that I did more than I thought I could.  What it all comes down to though is being proud of the path you did choose instead of dwelling on the ones you could have taken.  Who knows maybe some of those paths will swing back around again.  At least that's how I see it.  How do you tackle college and career choices, and please, if you have any tips for my nerve problem, message me!

29) The story behind one of my scars

The most obvious choice for this one is the giant scar on my neck, but I feel like a bit of a broken record with the number of times I explain that I have had cancer.  So I'll try to keep this short.

In my Junior year of college, fall quarter, I discovered that I had a lump in my neck that I could move around and not really feel.  At my annual exam I pointed this out to the doctor and she referred me to a specialist.  The specialist asked me if I smoked etc (risk factors for cancer) and, when I said no, he informed me it was probably a cyst and that it was probably not cancer.  When my results came back...he was proven wrong in his assumptions.  I was diagnosed with metastasized papillary thyroid cancer.

The treatment was a surgery and radioactive Iodide treatment.  So as far as cancer goes, I got away easy.  Here's a picture of me directly after surgery.  Note my suction cup drains to keep fluid from building up in my neck.

...I had been discussing what lymph nodes look like with my surgeon at all of my appointments.  Directly after my surgery apparently showed me the lymph nodes they had removed.  I was still drugged up pretty badly sooo I don't really remember that, but all told they removed 25 lymph nodes, 15 of which were cancerous.

Any who, I believe that the term cancer needs to be evaluated.  People hear it and instantly life seems to be over, but in many cases, like mine, there is an extremely high recovery rate.  Also people get tense when they ask me what my scar is from and I respond cancer.  They seem to think they have stumbled upon a touchy subject even though I am very open and comfortable discussing my experience.  Cancer has come to denote death and despair, which can make treatment more difficult for those facing it.

If you have any questions about me or my experiences in treatment for cancer, please comment or message me.  I really believe being open and honest is the key to surviving treatments, but that's just how I see things.

24) Celebrity Crush

I have 3 celebrity crushes and all for good reasons, so bare with me:
1) Edward Norton: I loved him in Fight Club, American History X, and Death to Smoochy ( coincidentally  these are some of my most favorite movies ever) You can read all about Edward Norton HERE

2) Kevin Smith: Quite possibly my favorite director of all time.  I have a deep respect for him and much like Seth Rogen, I will consider myself accomplished in Hollywood once I have worked with him.  He has argued down the rating of his films successfully 3 times, I believe.  Which is very impressive considering the ass backwards way our RATINGS SYSTEM is set up. Read more about Kevin Smith's genius streak of writing and directing his own films including Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Clerks II, HERE

3) Anna Torv: She is the star of my favorite show right now, FRINGE.  Its an unbelievably demanding show for her and she once again proved how incredible she is as an actress this week, when she had to play William Bell trapped in her own character, OLIVIA's body.  It was intense and really fun to watch.  Over and Over again she amazes me on this show.  If you want to read more about her career it is HERE

Definitely take the time to pick through the links, especially the link to the ratings system movie.  It is really informative and entertaining at the same time.

Puppy

I've been really wanting a big dog puppy for quite a long time.  I miss all the big dogs I grew up with and strongly feel that bigger breeds make the best family pets.  As a little kid I had boxer mix (Bailey), when Bailey died, my mom and dad took my sister and I to look at puppies.  We fell in love with Daisy and Beth.  They were from the same litter and their siblings were many and varying in size and shape. They grew to about 60 pounds each and were fairly well trained smart dogs.  We had them right up to the end of High School, but at a fairly tumultuous point of my development, my parents were separated and Beth passed away from complications due to her long fight with diabetes.  She was collapsed in the hallway and I pulled her up on my lap as her breath became uneven, my sister told me, "say goodbye Cassie" in the tenderest way and we sat on the floor petting her, comforting her until she was gone.  It was extremely hard, but I realized at that moment that she had been a very good friend and companion.  As my school schedule becomes less strenuous next quarter and Work starts no earlier than 10 am, I am at a place where I have the time to care for and train a puppy to be my friend, especially since I have Anthony to back me up and help with training and care.  I'm very excited for our new addition.  Her name is Olive and she was born the day before my birthday, December 26th.  Making her 3 months on the 26th of March.  She went to the vet this morning and started her puppy shots.  Puppies really do make the world around, but that's just how I see it.  What is your favorite pet/ companion?