But not working over-time. I’m too tired for that. 🙂 (Sorry, random song reference there…)

I finally made spaghetti. It was absolutely delicious. Kevin, Jen, and Max came over to join in the spaghetti party and there was just enough for everyone. As planned, I bought some delightful bread, and thankfully Kevin and Jen provided the salad and dessert. Mmm, pumpkin pie… You know autumn’s arrived when toes start to feel tingly from the cold and there’s that sweet smell of pumpkin pie in the kitchen.

I’m not sure my spaghetti was as good as last time. I swear I put in too much oregano or something, but no one else seemed to notice it. I think my taste buds were just off today because I haven’t been feeling too well. That, and I’m sure I probably got overwhelmed by all the spices after standing over them at the stove all afternoon. It was worth it, though.

What else did I do today, apart from obsessing over pasta? I spoke to Translating Drew again. Apparently he called me this morning, but I was so deeply asleep I didn’t wake up when my cell phone rang. Finally, at nine o’clock this evening I was back in my room and I happened to glance over at my cell phone because a little light was flashing, letting me know I missed a call. So I called him right back and we had a wonderful chat. He invited Dean and I out to lunch to discuss other show ideas because he really wants to see something happen. He’s excited to work with me on some other TV show ideas that I’ve had in the midst of this one overwhelming Dracula project. Now that we’re all cooled down from the Dracula let-down, it looks like we’re getting psyched up for something else. It was great to hear that Drew’s still with me on this; he’s a great guy, I’d hate to lose him. I talked to him about some ideas about arts programs aimed at teenagers and he seemed to love it. So, as soon as Dean gets back in town it looks like our little lunch parties will have a new member along. 🙂 Now I just have to let Dean know about this… I just realized I forgot to email him about talking to Drew. Oh well, the man’s in Geneva and not even checking his email all that often. It can wait until he’s calmed down from all this crazy traveling.

You have no idea how great it feels to have experienced professional men back me up on my goals and ideas. That hit me while I was sitting in the Count’s restaurant, looking across the table at Dean as he explained the show idea. I finally got off cloud nine and realized, hey, Dean’s actually going along with this. That probably sounds pretty funny, but that was the first time I actually stepped back from the excitement and looked at what Dean really did for me, you know? The fact that this man who has been around the world, has worked with some really amazing people on profound projects, is spending his time and his company’s money backing me up. I couldn’t help but smile at that thought. I had a crazy plan that was impressive enough to warrant the attention of such a successful person as Dean. And now, to hear what all Drew has told me, to listen to his enthusiasm and support, that too means a lot to me. Heh, if only I were at liberty to tell you half of what Drew has told me. That man’s phenomenal. And to think he wants to work to get one of my TV shows on the air. He wants to work to get me to where I need to be to accomplish my goals. Of course, he does stand to gain from this project, but that’s not the point. He believes in me and is applying more than just talk. I really like that feeling. I want to live up to that and pay Dean and Drew back for their time and investment. Dang it, this better all work out in the end; I owe them to much for everything to fall apart now.

You know what else? It won’t fall apart. I’m absolutely confident that it will never fall apart. Right now, things may be slow, I may be sleeping in and obsessing over spaghetti. But I’m just waiting. It’ll happen, just not right this minute. Eh, I’m planning to have the world in my pocket by my nineteenth birthday. How does that sound? 🙂 A project in the works, off the ground, ready to be worked on. That’s what I want for my birthday.

I’m up late again, I know it. I slept in too late again today. It’s so hard to get out of that pattern, especially when there’s no immediate need to. I have no reason to get up before noon, so why bother? There’s nothing I need to do in the morning that I can’t do in the afternoon. Tonight (or rather, this morning) I decided I needed to get cracking on my travelogue from Berlin. I’ve written one entry so far but I’ve been having a hard time applying myself to it. I’ve been too tired to feel creative and jovial enough to come up with anything entertaining. Besides, so much happened in such a short span of time that it’s a rather daunting task to try and document it all. I tried for an hour to write the next entry, the one for the Wednesday when I arrived in Berlin, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I got through three horrific paragraphs and finally decided to quit. Instead I applied myself to something that I could easily handle – I wrote a basic outline of what needed to be explained in each subsequent entry. I just didn’t have time to write anything while I was there, so I’ve been left with nothing but my memories to write from. For some reason I thought writing the outline would be harder than it was. Mostly it was just time consuming. I wanted to make sure everything was in perfect chronological order and I got all of the important details in without revealing anything too private or confidential. But now that my outline’s all done I think it will be a lot easier to get a grasp on what exactly I have to write. When it comes to travelogue writing it’s so much easier to have a frame in place, rather than just wandering about.


Of course, some people say you need a frame for all writing, but sometimes in fiction I like just going at it, free-wheeling it, that sort of thing. Or like blogs for instance – I usually have no clue what I’m going to write about when I sit down to write a blog. Sometimes I have general ideas of things I’d like to touch on, but no details about how to deliver it. And yet somehow I end up with these really ridiculously long entries… I swear, I don’t mean for them to be this long, I think my brain’s just too overactive in the wordsmithing department.

Time to lay down and read for a while to try and calm my brain down to a point where I can actually fall asleep. No matter how tired I am usually, my brain is still hyperactive and it won’t stop thinking. I can’t shut it off. I’ll have about six thought patterns going on in my head at once and it just won’t shut up. Does anyone else have this problem, or am I just weird? Charles Dickens seems to help with this. I’ve been reading ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ and even though I have been enjoying the book (which is shocking, since I normally loath Dickens), it certainly does slow my brain down. Heh, it’s rather funny that Dickens is mind-numbing…