You got what you want, you can hardly stand it though...

Lin_See — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:34:00 GMT

I'm sorry, I realize it's been two days since my last post. I'm lazy. I also haven't taken any pictures in the last two days. I did however steal these pictures from eurekaunscripted.tumblr.com. That's the Eureka writer's blog.

These are pictures of the aftermath of the fire taken from just outside the Eureka writer's trailer. You can see the damage, but you can't smell it. We've been smelling it all week. Well, Tuesday anyway. Yesterday we moved to temporary office space on the lot where we'll be until next week. They are apparently cleaning our parking lot this evening so at least we won't be wading through ash and burnt video tape tomorrow morning. I get to drive the golf cart shuttle which is fun. I have to say, driving the golf cart around the lot is probably one of my most favorite things at the moment. That's right, I'm so very easily amused.

Oh yeah, here are those pictures:

Anyway, Tuesday was pretty miserable in the trailer. When we came in that morning there was a thin layer of ash over almost everything. The smell was horrendous and by the end of the day we were all suffering in some way. Thania had a giant headache, Nick and Eric were dealing with runny noses and watery eyes, and I think John was suffering from it all, he looked like he had been crying all day, and his eyes were watering, I think he ended up leaving early. I had a headache by the end of it and my throat was swollen and sore. Thank goodness we moved yesterday.

The really cool thing about this week was that I got to spend quite a bit of time observing the writer's room. It was a lot of fun and I wish I could just spend all of my time listening to them break stories and work through notes they get on stories from network and the studio. It's very interesting and all of the writers and producers are really nice about letting us observe and they always take time to stop every now and then and address us interns, even if it is just to tease us about how "interesting" it is to be in a real writer's room. I think they take for granted that it really is interesting, at least to someone like me who has never experienced anything like it before.

Anyway, the internship is going really well. I think I'm making a decent impression, they don't seem to hate me so that's good. We had our internship orientation Tuesday and Katie (the other intern) and I both left that feeling like we got the best deal of all the 230 interns at NBC this summer. Most of the other interns showed up in ties, slacks, skirts, and very formal dress. We were both wearing jeans. There was a lot of talk about how some of the interns aren't really interacting with the people in the departments they are interning in and Katie and I both looked at each other and agreed that we are very lucky. We get face time on a daily basis with the Exec. Producers and all of the writer's. They know us by name and take time out each day to at least say hi to us even if it is a really busy day.

Yesterday there wasn't really a ton of stuff to do, the internet was down and we spent a good portion of the afternoon playing Hangman, Name that Tune, and I sat in the writer's room for about the last two hours of the day. So all is well on the internship front.

As for L.A....

L.A. is apparently a vortex of time suckage. I feel like out here there are really only about 20 hours in a day. It's always 9 or 10 at night before I realize the entire day has gone. Days don't seem as long out here and that's really throwing me for a loop. I keep going back and forth on how I feel about this town. It's a strange place and so big. Everything seems to be happening so fast and I always thought L.A. was way more laid back, but it doesn't feel like it. I still have yet to meet anyone out here (with the exception of Katie) who is actually from here and yet I still get funny looks when people find out I'm from Missouri. Yesterday I spent most of my lunchtime telling them what it's like to be in a tornado. They couldn't believe the sky actually does turn green. That was a weird experience. They also were pretty surprised when I told them that humidity basically makes it feel like you're swimming outside and it's something we deal with on an everyday basis from about March to October.

I think I'm kind of in culture shock.

I don't know if L.A. is a place I really want to be. I'm torn though, because this internship really solidifies the fact that I DO want to work in TV/Film. I want to produce and write. I just don't want to live in L.A. and it worries me because I think I won't be able to do what I want to do if I don't live out here. And I go back and forth everyday about whether I could live here or not. Some days I think I could, others I think I couldn't.

Part of it is the fact that right now, L.A. doesn't actually feel like a place. I don't see how people have normal lives here. Where are the homes? Where are the suburbs? And I never thought I would say this, but I was really excited tonight to see a strip mall. It made me feel like home. This is insane. I need to find some parts of L.A. that don't feel so impossible to navigate and live in. I don't understand where all the places I've heard described to me are, where all the pretty areas and cute bungalows I've read about and seen on t.v. are. And there is the problem. I've read and watched so many various depictions of this city that I had a completely different picture in my mind of what it would be like.

I need to get over those depictions and start accepting reality a little more. I don't know, I just hope by the end of the summer I have a better idea of how I feel and of how to go about doing what I want to do. I had a long talk the other day at my internship about what my next career moves could be and I am not satisfied at all. I don't know what to do next to achieve the things I want. This internship is great and all, but I need a better idea of the right direction to go after this. I don't want to be a page at NBC, and I don't know if I want to try the associate program. I want to go to Vancouver and work on a set, or I want to be in a writer's room as an assistant or something. I don't really want to do anything else.

Sigh.

I guess I still have about 8 weeks to figure some of this out.

One other thing I realized today is that I'm a little homesick and now it seems when I do get home I may not have any friends waiting as they are all moving away.

It dawned on me this morning that Dave is moving to Florida before I get back, Kelly and Lindsey will be in Milwaukee by then, Ashley and Andrew will be in Ohio, Annie is already in Arkansas, and Brittany could very well be in STL....

That's so depressing, what will I do? I won't have anyone to play with anymore. And what's even worse is that I've seen most of those people for the last time and I didn't even realize it...sad sad sad, I will miss them all so much....you guys better keep in touch!!!!!

TOTAL MILES TODAY: 0 (all I did today was eat and sleep)

TOTAL GAS MONEY SO FAR: Still around $350.00

TODAY'S THEME SONG: It's Not Going to Stop by Aimee Mann

Eureka! An Internship at NBC/Universal : Fire

You got what you want, you can hardly stand it though...