What are you going to do? What I do.

I just realised that I haven’t posted in half an eternity, but tonight is a night where if I don’t do it now, I won’t post for another two weeks. And seeing that I got a comment on the last meme post has just given me some extra strength of will. So this is for you John. Kinda. Sorta.

Once again, I don’t really know what to tell everyone first, so I’ll just start somewhere and not bother to be chronological.

My mum made me an advent calendar. I can’t remember exactly when the last time was she did that (I think I might have been 13 or 14), but I was deeply touched. It’s superfun and loaded with beauty items of all kinds. I love her to pieces for that. I’m glad she thought of me.

I had a date a week ago today. A 5:45am date at the airport with a truly wonderful (but elusive) man I will call The Spaniard untill I’m allowed to reveal his name. That, and because it sounds cool. You have Russell Crowe to thank for that one. He leads a sort of 007 life it seems and he jets around Europe a lot. And since I’m a busy woman too, we decided to go a little crazy and have an early morning date. It was probably the shortest date in recorded history, but it was delightful nonetheless. He treated me to some hot chocolate, we sat “away from that cluster of policemen” (I swear!) and generally had a good time. Naughty allusions were made (I’m trying hard to remember if I ever went on a date and this didn’t happen and I can’t come up with even one example), I glanced at him shyly and sniffed at his heavenly scent and he ogled me. A lot. And I didn’t mind one bit. Then he went to exchange some money, we both confirmed our hatred of UBS and then we hugged goodbye. I held on a little tighter to breathe in his smell and he held on a little tighter to run a hand down my back. Then we parted, he stroked my cheek lightly with his hand and left. I watched him disappear in the distance, walked home in a daze and fell back into bed with a smile on my face.
Since then The Spaniard has been on my mind a lot, but at least I’m not quite driving my friends as crazy as I did before that first date. Sorry guys. I know I can be a pain in the ass. Sorry. But I’m getting you all Christmas presents that will hopefully redeem me.

In other news, I’VE SHOT MY MOVIE! Yes, ladies and gents, it’s a wrap! After a lot of turnabouts, unexpected cancellations from literally all the actors/actresses we had in mind, we ended up at Miriam’s flat last Saturday and shot the thing. It was incredible. Words can not properly describe how I feel about all this, but let me quote Hugh Grant in Notting Hill: “It’s as if I’ve taken love heroine”. I’ve taken film heroine. And I can never, ever come off it again. There’s no way I can go on living without doing this again, so I will do this again. When, where, that’s not certain yet. But it will happen. To repeat what I said to Simon when he was doing Sandro’s cut-with-blood make-up: “oh yes, there will be blood”. Which is also another movie quote, I know. But hey, y’all have read my FTS post I guess.
I’m so grateful to Sandro from work who volunteered to do this with us. Without having any previous experience, he jumped right into it and saved us all by being the male lead (without which this film would have been really experimental, seeing as there are only one man and one woman in it). I still cannot believe he was brave enough to strip to his boxers in front of a whole bunch of people he didn’t know. That’s right, he didn’t know any of them except me, but he still did it and he did a good job too. I don’t know what I did to earn such trust from him, but I’m happy it’s there. Annika, the lead actress was really good as well. She’s one of the film crew’s girlfriend and she’s a natural too. It was a pleasure to work with her. She’s beautiful in a very special way (if you wanted a young princess in some sci-fi/fantasy film, you’d pick her) and she was great for the part.
My feet were sore after we were done (literally, I had to take a cab home) but it was worth every “ahh!” and “oww!” that followed on Sunday. The shoot was sheer magic. It’s just the right thing for me. Having to think of, explain and coordinate a thousand different things at the same time turned out to be stressful but ever so gratifying. Now I know why I always wanted to do this and I was right to want to do it.
A word to Carol if you’re reading this: you were the first person to know this was the right thing for me. You knew it before I did. In your BAC yearbook comment for me, you wrote that you hoped I would one day be granted my wish to direct my very own movie. I don’t remember ever having explicitly said that while I was still in school, but you knew, regardless. Well, my wish has been granted. Thank you for believing in me and that I could do it! Te quiero, chica.

And finally: I’m going Christmas presents shopping tomorrow, at last! I’ve been so busy prepping for the film, being there for the SALZ (my newspaper) and a million other things, I haven’t got ’round to it yet. But tomorrow, I will. I just hope I’ll think of some good presents, because as of right now, my mind is completely blank. And that’s really stupid, because usually I always know what to get people. This year? Zilch. I have more people than ever whom I have to get presents for and zero ideas. Let’s just hope I get inspired tomorrow, or that will be that!
Speaking of presents, The Spaniard has told me he got something for me. He asked if I wanted to know what it was, since we’re not going to see each other again till January, but I said I wanted to be surprised. Then, yesterday, it looked like we might still get to see each other and I apologised and said I hadn’t got him anything yet. He very pointedly replied that all I had to do was wrap a giant bow around myself and that’d be enough, but that I shouldn’t apologise, since he was not going to be able to give me his present either. I was puzzled, but then he intrigued me even more: “you will have to come with me to a very special place in Wintethur and there you will get your gift”. What the hell is he getting me? Oh I hope it’s a mansion in Winterthur! Nah, just kidding. Though he could probably afford it… heh.

Anyway, that’s all for tonight, I’m really tired now and I still have to watch a movie. Or two. Well, I laid out the thrilling double feature “The Butterfly Effect” and “Vertigo” for tonight, but it’s probably too late for both tonight.

I hope you are all doing fine and not quite as pre-Christmas stressed as I am (the usual disclaimer: it’s a good stress) but munching cookies and drinking milk all day long, waiting for Father Christmas to come their way.

Love,

Anna