Paranormal Activities and 48 Hour Weekend

Good evening all!
This weekend was most likely most draining weekend I've had in about a year. To start off with, my roommates, a few friends, and I decided to go to the midnight showing of Paranormal Activity at the Fargo Theatre. Holy cow was that movie SCARY!!!!! I have never seen a movie that jarring. The movie was great, and the psychological effect played out on a lot of people in the theatre. It was a great way to kick off the Halloween season though!! I was too scared to sleep after the movie- I couldn't sleep until 4am!! And unfortunately I had to get up at 8am on Friday... :( oy!


I got up though, and that evening the 48 Hour Film Challenge began!! We broke into 5 teams- about 12 people in each, and were given our criteria at 7pm. This year it was:

Genre: Buddy film/Fantasy
Character: Jordan Gordon, system analyst
Prop: Bicycle
Line of Dialogue: This could get very complicated.

We moved out of the Center for the Arts and into my apartment in Neumaier and did pre-production Friday night. We got our final draft of the script done around 2:30am, then the director, cinematographer, and producer created storyboards and shotlists until about 4am. Then, at 7am we began the film shoot. We wrapped the shoot by 7pm (record time!!), and I was able to get some sleep Saturday night! Woohoo!
Sunday at 7pm we screened our film along with the other 4. Only 3 films had completed their film on time and one advanced to regions after judging. Our film won Best Soundtrack- the music was AMAZING! Our team worked really great together and every year it is a great opportunity to make friends and get to know colleagues. This year, my task was Prop Master... which didn't entail much, but I also did other random jobs. Went running for items, helped with some prop continuity, and did boom operating for 3 hours. It was an overall great experience despite my intense allergies from the cat on the location of our shoot. I can't wait for next year- maybe even this spring if I get a chance!!

Breathe of Fresh Air

So, last week we had Fall Breather. So, I got the weekend off from work, headed to my grandparents for the weekend, then went home for Monday and Tuesday. So, I had to drive an hour through a blizzard -we got snow in the beginning of October! :'(
And I get back home on Monday and come down with a nasty cold... Which I STILL have. On top of that, my allergies were running ramped since we were tearing out our old carpet in the living room and putting new sub-flooring in. Yeah, not fun. So, I really couldn't breathe over fall breather. How much of a play on words is that? :D
But, the drive back to Moorhead was redeeming enough. I stopped in Grand Forks and had lunch with a very close friend of mine and even met up with my step-cousin at the lovely joint Cold Stone Creamery. YUM!!
Spending 3 hours in Grand Forks, I still had the one hour drive back to Moorhead. I was greeted by my roommate Mary, who gave me one of the biggest hugs of my life (again). After we unloaded my car (which I mistakenly packed pretty tight with tons of stuff), we decided to go out and grab some fast food and came back and watched 18 Kids and Counting: The First Granddugger (soo adorable!).
When our roommate Melanie came home, Mary and I greeted her the same way I was greeted. You know, it's crazy. We have only been rooming since the middle of August, and even now we miss each other like crazy over long weekends and breaks. We really have already become sisters in a way. It makes me happy to know we all have 2 more years together at MSUM.
And now this week, I have a few midterms. I was lucky enough to have one this morning in fact and it was the easiest midterm I think there ever could possibly be. My next one is tomorrow morning bright and early!
This weekend will be sooo fun though! This weekend is the 48 Hour Film Challenge!!!! Friday night at 7pm we are told what genre, line of dialogue, character, and prop our film is to entail and then we have 48 hours to plan, shoot, and edit it. On top of that, it can only be 8 minutes and not a single frame over! They will be shown Sunday night at 7pm in King Hall 110 (just in case you want to come see our amazing film!)

Singing in The Rain and Talking In The Night

So, I liked that it rained the other day, but EVERY day? Ridiculous. I don't think it has been raining off and on like this in FOREVER! I miss the sun and I miss hearing the birds when I walk to class. At least it's not a million degrees outside anymore, but I have donned my winter coat and mittens already. That started October 1st. At least it wasn't in September but still. I think it's the wind that makes it so cold. Heck, even my roommate has worn her long john's under her jeans when we have to walk to class. But hey, at least she is staying warm. My mom sends me an email every morning sending me updates on the weather and where it's potentially snowing (somewhere on the west side of ND and east side of MT). Her positive morning messages always makes me smile. And even though this weather is absolutely insane, there is one bright side to having all this rain: I don't have to go out and wash my car, because Mother Earth is doing it for me :)
On another note, I have a funny story. I fell asleep watching desperate housewives around midnight Saturday night, laying in bed, because I was completely exhausted from work that day. My roommate got home around 1:30am from her date and told me she was back. Apparently I had an entire conversation with her while I was out cold. I know sometimes I may talk to people in my sleep, but never had I that much EVER! My other roommate even came in and I guess I wanted a hug from her and even sat up and gave her one! I actually did wake up around 3:30am and was so surprised to see my roommate back, because I know she always tells me when she's back. Needless to say, I was so confused. The next morning I asked the both of them about the night before and they told me the whole story. I was in utter SHOCK! I think I freaked myself out. Good thing we are learning about sleep in my Psychology class. Maybe I will learn something about it!