Started the move tonight after a long, long (but good day.)

So, may be out of commission for a day or two.

A little business first: Happy Birthday to the Howley July Birthdays. There’s a little birthday week long festivus going on right now in Virginia.

Also, Happy Birthday to my niece, Ellen. (Card’s coming, dear!)

Had an awesome meeting today with our new TV Lit Agent. All systems go on the TV side. We have a few new ideas. She loved one we haven’t written, but worked out the details and story/characters for. She wants to get us out there, full blitz pitching to TV Producers, when the development season officially opens for business in about two weeks. She believes strongly we can sell the idea and get paid to at least write it. If it goes to pilot, or makes it on the air – wonderful. If not, we’ll make some money, get our feet wet, and meet many of the Execs and Showrunners we need to meet to open doors for staffing next season and getting our other TV pilots off the ground. We’re slated to practice our pitch with her, hopefully next week or so, then out the door we go. To further underscore this, our Manager sent over NBC’s “shopping list” for development season – essentially based on what they already have, what they feel they need for the season. It was a very nuts and bolts, short list with very specific angles on what they hoped to buy (of course, all wish lists are subject to change at any given moment if a super hot idea rolls in the door and the writers just blow everyone away with it.)

So, that was good. Hopefully we’ll keep this engine running at full throttle right into paid, legit work. After the meeting, we headed over to the Universal lot to have lunch at The Grill with a Desperate Housewives Senior Producer/Writer, who happens to be friends with Jason – their kids are the same age and go to the same school. He was kind enough to give us some time and provide us with some great wisdom. He’s been in the biz for some time and has been quite successful. Again, it’s always fun to visit a lot and have lunch.

So, that’s about all for now. Back to the move.

Ever have a week where each day feels like a month?

But, the kind of month that you barely remember, and seems to zip past in the blink of an eye?

That’s the kind of week I’m having. Or, rather, that’s the kind of week I feel like I’m having. You know, where I feel like I often don’t know if I’m coming or going. Where I have a million different things to deal with in each twenty-four hour span and somehow I knock most all of them out in that twenty-four hour span; but then the amount of stuff to do quadruples and then quadruples again and…until I go to bed and play whack-a-mole on my to do list.

Such is moving for me. Which I do not like. Why? Because I’ve done it sooooo many times in my life. I’m hoping that this one will be the third, or even the second to last move for a long, long time. But, heck, I said that last year when I moved into my current place. Well, how was I supposed to know what would happen? It’s not like I’m psychic.

The funny thing is that I don’t mind being a nomad. It’s just that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve attempted to lead a more real life. You know. The one where you actually try and craft a home for yourself. I spend a predominate amount of time in my home, so it makes sense to me that I would trick it out will all the comforts I prefer. This does not, however, bode well for the vagabond in me. With comfort comes stuff and with stuff comes weight and with weight comes roots. It’s an age old pattern. One that we’ve all followed to greater or lesser degrees. And yes, you can choose to unload your stuff and become free and weightless – mobile in a moment, but often lacking a certain kind of comfort. Trust me, I’ve experienced both sides of the coin in unique ways.

- I once lost everything I owned in an apartment fire and moved with the clothes on my back and a Red Cross coat.

- There was the time, on Thanksgiving Day, in less stable and sane times, that I walked out of a three bedroom apartment I was renting in Chicago with my clothes, CD’s, (This was back when CD’s existed), my computer, and my books and left all the furniture, food in the fridge, my bed, television, VCR (this was in the preDVD era), dishes, pots, pans and just went.

-There was the time I moved to San Francisco with four suitcases on an airplane, which was everything I owned. I lived in various residential hotels when I arrived.

-I moved out west with everything I owned in my Toyota, which was predominately books.

On the flip side, there were the three apartments I lived in for more than a year (Which was a rarity.) Two of which were with my Ex, Mikki, and still dear friend. In both, because we were doing quite well bartending at the time, we spent about $5,000 a piece in each – furniture, painting, light fixtures, cooking gear, rugs, blinds, tools, art for the walls, these special wood crates from Montana. I almost retiled an entire bathroom in an apartment we were renting just because I didn’t like the look of the tile and this was after I hung up my dancing shoes.

Anyways, I could go on, but there isn’t any need. I’m not quite sure why I got into that whole list, and those specific memories. I guess to remind myself it’s a fluid state. The way things are today – the outside world around you – is not how things will necessarily be tomorrow. Sure, hopefully they will, but I’m not, and you’re not, in control of that. So, just go with where you need (not want) to be and leave the rest.

And make sure you save your boxes, whether you keep your stuff or not!

Did you watch?

My thoughts are still swirling about the episode. Jacob came by to watch. Jason was gonna stick around, but we put in another long day of trimming and slimming our pilot script in anticipation of next Thursday’s meeting with our possible TV Lit Agent. I think we’ve got another full day and maybe a half on top of that, we’ll see. Lots has to happen this week. Lots.

Back to Mad Men.

This is shaping up to be the Don Draper season isn’t it? Whereas last year had a ton of Betty, the focus has been stripped down and is much more minimal, now. It’s a very interesting choice for a show at Mad Men’s level of success. Tonight really drove home the point that this season is as close to a reboot of the show as possible.

I am not certain though, how I feel about the choice, though. I remain optimistic and interested, enthralled by the world created in the show and the acting/writing/set design that goes into bringing it alive. I think what summed up this uncertainty on my part as a fan was when we watched the clips for next week’s episode. Jacob and I were both befuddled by them. There was no indication of what the show would be about (next week) or where the story was headed. It was just a disparate array of bits and pieces of, admittedly, interesting scenes, but no cohesion! It was actually funny and caught us by surprise.

The big move is happening this Friday. Can’t believe it’s here,  actually. All of a sudden there’s a mountain of logistical hoops to jump through in five days, on top of an intense week of work and a big meeting. Plus, we still don’t know which way we’re headed next, but should be hearing on that soon (I hope.) We kind of wonder if Thursday won’t be a double shot of stuff, because our one set meeting is in the morning. Maybe not, though.

Aren’t I a picture of conviction this evening?

While I’m excited and thrilled with all this possibility and good things happening, I must admit I’m also perpetually exhausted and would love to find our way through the many different personal and professional changes happening right now to the new routine that will shake loose. I’m sure it’s coming sooner than I realize. So, a little faith and patience and I’ll get there. I usually do. Just wears me out a bit more than usual when there’s so much change happening.

I’m fortunate though. SO fortunate. It amazes me every day. What a wonder life can be, right?

Went to see SALT tonight by the venerable Australian director, Phillip Noyce, starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Schrieber. I highly recommend it – especially if you love thrillers and spy thrillers, in particular (as I do.) It’s a classic action-thriller centered on a female spy and delivers on all accounts. I was impressed by how it embraced its genre and charged ahead, delivering a story and experience that didn’t try to hide what it was – exciting and entertaining, a great Saturday night movie with friends. (Thanks Mike for treating with 3 yr old passes that still worked!) Too often, lately, I feel as if genre movies – especially more conventional genres like the spy-thriller, or the action-thriller, feel embarrassed by the act of entertaining, and therefore feel the need, often unnecessarily, subvert their conventions. Which, if done poorly (as so often is the case), or if their are too many cooks in the kitchen, ruins the entertainment factor in the story (Yes, I’m looking at you KNIGHT AND DAY.)  So, check out SALT. Jason has a good, to the point post on some of the other cool aspects of SALT, namely that its another original story, instead of a knockoff or adaptation of a game, which is doing gangbusters at the box office.

Not much else going on. Just work, though today was a bit of an unplanned day off. I traveled down to Anaheim and the Disneyland Hotel to steal a few hours with my sister and brother-in-law, Caroline and Kent, who were in town with my nephews, Sam, Will, and Jack (everybody’s getting so big!) to tackle the Disney experience. We sat by the Neverland Pool while the boys swam and caught up a bit. It was wonderful to see them. I wish we’d had more time, but that just means I need to plan a trip to see them, once I get everything ironed out.

Been a long, long day. So, without further adieu, let’s get down to the task at hand:

-Viva El Birdos! The Cardinals had rallied quite well out of the game their, post all-star game. Then stumbled a bit recently. Still not sure what to think of this team. But, the bats appear to be waking up (for the most part), now if we could just get everyone healthy, we might be able to play some October baseball.

- Had breakfast with my friend, writer-director Lily, today. It’s always fun to see her and hear how she’s doing. We caught up on various news. She’s a kick-ass double threat and a good friend. You will probably see two features from her in the next year. She tends to make things happen, rather than wait. It’s a quality that I admire, because it’s tough to do that in life, let alone this town. She does it quite well.

-Also had lunch with a dashing young lady that I met at a party a while back. She’s a screenwriter as well, quite charming and funny. That’s all for now. Hopefully, we’ll hang out again.

- Jason and I put in more hard work today on CLIPPED. We’re about halfway through the bloated draft that we used to love. We’ve cut ten or twelve pages so far, simply by going line by line through the script together. It’s a long and involved process, but it’s producing big time results for us. I think we’re both amazed. In a way it’s a riff on an exercise we learned in our 431 class (not the writing group, per se.) Which was – you write a couple of scenes – say a brief sequence of five pages; now, without cutting anything major (like a whole scene) shrink that sequence down to 2-3 pages. It’s like acting like a trash compactor on your pages. Great exercise. We’re excited to see what we have when we get the script down to the proper sixty or so pages. It’ll be the same script, but much clearer and leaner. Can’t wait.

- Unfortunately though, due to the time commitment it takes to do this on a ninety-three page script, at about five -six hours per twelve or so pages; we’ve fallen a bit behind on other projects. Not what we wanted right now. C’est La Vie. I’m not completely surprised by that, but still, we’re not exactly thrilled we fell behind (I think we’re behind seven-ten days on delivering a few projects)We’re about forty-five pages in and genuinely concerned about whether we can finish by the Thursday meeting with our new TV Lit Agent. I think we’ll pull it off, but its gonna be close. Real close.

-I kind of have been having a hankering to play some Texas Hold’ Em lately; but am a) too broke, and b) don’t have the time. Kind of sad.

- The Swell Season’s new album is amazing. I can’t stop listening to it, Go out and get it right now.

-Need to start packing. I can’t wait to get in the next place. I will end up saving a ton of money monthly (a third of what I’m paying now, by myself!) This will help.

-Despite still being completely overwhelmed (in a good way) I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for work. There’s some longshot, advertising (writing copy) jobs that might be out there and we’re gonna see if those come through. Just wish we had a sense, of where we’re headed and what we could expect in the next few weeks.

-Going to see The Cheeseman’s tomorrow out in Anaheim at Disney Land. Looking so forward to seeing them.

I think that’s it for the night. Be good to yourself!

Today, after digging in for the long haul, we got down to business and had a good day. Nothing is more satisfying than a productive day. Nothing major accomplished. No projects finished (which is really all I mean by “nothing major accomplished.”) Just showed up and got down to it.

We had a conference call meeting at 12:15 with the young CE/Producer on the Sony Lot to discuss the treatment we just handed in – our take, basically, on that seed of an idea he pitched to us, about a month ago. One lesson we’ve learned and have gotten fairly decent at, is to continue to work hard, even in times of great change. Either change that brings us low (the option deal falling apart two months ago), or change that brings us way up with excitement (Last week’s events, for instance.)

It really can’t be overstated, but the one thing that will keep the typically anxious, self-defeating, insecure screenwriter somewhat sane in the turbulent sea of Hollywood is to always be onto the next project, not waiting for the results of the one that just went out. It’s really a matter of emotional sleight of hand – you were totally thrilled about that story you sent out. You completely sold yourself on it being the best thing you’ve ever done. But, now it’s out there – alone and unprotected. People, with your fate in their hands (or so you believe) will judge it (whether or not they have your fate in their hands, they will judge it – that much you can take to the bank.) What should you do? It’s common sense, but so many writer’s find it nearly impossible to do! What would you think? Transplant that excitement to something new! Something that’s the farthest it can be from going out there, alone and unprotected, something brand new and still chock full of possibilities!! Duh! (It took me a good decade of beating my head against the wall, and three years of grad school, to get this concept to even sink into my thick skull, let alone practice it in any fashion.) I think you get the point, though. You put your focus on the new, shiny object, so that when the old shiny object comes back, burnt to a crisp and bent in half, you aren’t completely devastated.

So this meeting was on something new. A feature idea that’s barely four double spaced pages, total. In the end, when it’s all stacked up and the outlines, character profiles, beat sheets, treatments, and drafts are written, I’m sure we’ll top out at 600 to 800 pages, maybe a few hundred more or less, but about there. So, you can see, it’s first steps – which is awesome. So fun. Waaaaaay better than sitting around, staring at the walls, wondering what everyone (our team) thinks of the two spec scripts we gave them. Waaaaaaaay better.

The meeting itself was fantastic. We got smart, considerate, challenging notes from and spitballed some ideas, deepening and tightening the skeleton of it, in a really comfortable collaborative fashion. Jason and I are pretty darn adept in the room developing things. We’ve shown some good skills at that in a couple of different situations. We feed off of each other’s mindsets and imaginations extremely well and both of us don’t have that need to be the one who gets the idea across. I’d say we’re both really excellent, natural team players. But, it’s thrilling to get a person on the other side of the table that has a confident opinion, is receptive to outside ideas, can give a note and remain flexible to what the note might spark – even if it’s something unexpected, and can keep an eye on tone, character and plot without letting it overburden the discussion. It was that kind of thrilling today. Always fun. And this is someone down at our level, a little bit further along than us, but still making a name for himself, too. He’s had good success and really is on a good trajectory to at least a strong career. So making this fan, of how we work and our writing, is excellent. It’s a seed that could bear fruit at any time over this project, or something down the line.

After the meeting, we got some errands (and pizza) in. Then we came back to my place and dove back into CLIPPED, which was the project we almost optioned, but it all fell apart a few months ago. CLIPPEd holds a special place in our hearts. It’s our baby. The one we really have an extreme amount of passion for, I mean we love all our scripts; but CLIPPED holds some kind of higher sway, even if unspoken, over us. But, we knew we had to take a good hard look at it. The script is meant as a one-hour TV Pilot script, for a television series, but it’s thirty pages too long. Which means the script had to go on a big time diet to drop those pages, before the big meeting next week, so we have something fresh to talk to our new TV Lit Agent, too. So, the past two days, we’ve been moving through CLIPPED, which has gone much better than either of us expected.

Instead of wholesale cutting of sequences, scenes, or even characters; we’ve simply taken a good look at the bloatedness of the scenes and writing and trimmed accordingly. We are on a good pace to bring it down to the required sixty pages by next thursday and make the story a hundred times leaner and easier to see as a show. Some cool things I’ve noticed about this process, though. For one, Jason and I don’t normally work or write in the same room, let alone together, out loud, talking back and forth. We’ve really clicked through this rewrite on this more traditional writing partner method (one computer, one room, two guys.) We’ve done good solid work. It’s slow going, though. Probably runs us four hours or so to go through about ten to twelve pages of script and winnow it down to half that through word choice and careful trimming of extraneous elements or repetitive writing, line by line.

The funny thing is we really thought this script was just amazing and in reading it over again as we go, I think I can speak for both of us and say – “Wow, I can’t believe we ever let anyone see this. It’s so bloated!”  But we did and hear we are, relatively unscathed and a little wiser for it. We lived. And that’s all you really want from life, right?

Starting to get sleepy. We’ll have to resume tomorrow. Until then: Onward and upward! Tomorrow’s a brand new day. Plenty to do. Lots of enjoyment to earn.

Good Night!

Tonight marked the official end of Summer Writer’s Camp. Jason made the call that he would have to stay on the west coast for the duration, so he returned home to Topanga and had the house sitter depart. (Sorry Darby, Lyric, Ollie, and all on the East Coast!) On my end, I called in the cavalry to ensure a smooth road through the move next week and this initial slate of meetings. In other words, we put aside the belief that there will be a significant lull anytime soon, and dug in for the long haul. We realized that we’ve got a lot of work to do – to get ready for the meetings, to get ready for what might come after, to wrap up some of our side projects, and to develop new stuff. We feel the more we hustle, the sooner we can push through to the next stage (That’s the  theory we’re sticking with, at least.) We know the one thing we can control in this whole tornado of activity is how hard we work, so we decided to go all in on the hard work. Double down and look for those split aces, if you will.

Sad to see Jase go, though I’m sure he’ll be relieved to sleep in a real bed. It’s been a week since he flew in, late Tuesday night, and we had the big meeting on Wednesday. So hard to believe its been a week. Feels like ten, but then again it also feels like just yesterday. All in all, its been a strange out of time experience. For seven days straight it was all movies, meetings, food trucks, and writing; with a few social events tossed in for celebratory purposes here and there. We worked through a rewrite of the Chinatown in the Desert feature, wrote the first draft of a short film that we’re getting paid to write (For a 3D shoot and with a heavy Special FX budget), wrote the treatment for a screenplay we’re doing with a Junior Creative Exec at Sam Raimi’s company, and started trimming down (30 pages have to be cut) a pilot we wrote months back and need to get ready for the meeting with the TV Agent next week. That’s a pretty heavy attack. I actually feel like I’m missing something, too. Which is nuts.

We have a phone meeting with the JCE at Sam Raimi’s Company tomorrow at 12:30 to discuss the treatment. We start in on a feature for a young, up and coming director who’s about to graduate from UCLA. We’ve been working on the story for a year, almost, developing it, working out the kinks, making it strong. We booked the meeting with the TV Agent next week for Thursday. We’re waiting on word from our Feature Agents about our spec scripts and whether we’ll go out on a blitzkrieg of meet and greets, or try and package one of them to sell, or write something brand new altogether. We even had lunch with a good friend, and up and coming writer-producer at the Disney/ABC lot  the other day. This is all just the next seven days, or so. Somewhere in there we have to prep a TV pilot outline that we have for the TV Agent meeting as well, and I’m sure we’ll hear notes back on the rewrite of Chinatown in the Desert feature.

Pretty crazy, huh? By no means do I think it’ll always be like this. I only lay it out, so that one day I can remember this time in my life; because it feels so fast moving, right now. It strikes me that we’re at this final push to get to the top of one mountain. One we’ve been on for years. By no means is it the last mountain; or, by no means is it about climbing mountains so much. The top of the current mountain will be working and getting paid at the same time, possibly signified by membership in the Writer’s Guild, which is the Writer’s Union here. That will come with our first job, which should come as a result of the impending meetings. I’m not talking about getting rich, or out of debt completely, even. I’m simply talking about earning insurance coverage through the Guild, and enough of a payday to keep writing. Liftoff essentially. To achieve that, we have to give ourselves over to the work and the momentum and ride that boost, to climb the last bit and get to the top, so we can finish the beginning of this journey and settle into the next phase.

I hope that all makes sense. It’s a fun time. One that feels like its okay to have tunnel vision, to be consumed by the work in a good way. But, it’s also disorienting and nerve wracking at times. Heck, it might always be nerve wracking, actually. Who am I to say? The interesting thing, and some that know me well will laugh (hopefully), there is no preparation for this sudden explosion. You could study the business, study other writer’s paths in – go ahead, it still won’t prep you. I don’t even know why exactly, but as someone who maniacally researches and preps and studies as much of the business as he can, nothing I read or studied before shined a light on the experiences of the past week. None of them. You’ve gotta learn on the job, as it happens. I suppose that’s what a PHD is.

One of the last things we did for Summer Writer’s Camp is head back over to Venice and The Brig, which is a bar on Abbott Kinney, with a parking lot next to it, which is a home base of sorts for Food Trucks. We  headed over to catch our new favorite, The Buttermilk Truck. This is where we went last week, Wednesday night as we waited for word on how the big meeting went and grabbed dinner from The Comfort Truck. It was very Suberian (Howard Suber) ending (Completion and Return.) While The Comfort Truck makes these awesome beef sliders, they aren’t anywhere near The Buttermilk Truck, which gives the Grilled Cheese Truck a run for its money.

Here are some pictures to prove it:

The Elusive Buttermilk Truck at The Brig in Venice, CA

On the left is the world's greatest Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich (With Sausage) and on the right are The Buttermilk Truck's infamous Red Velvet Chocolate Chip PANCAKE bites with a Vanilla Pastry Cream on top. Commence drooling....now!

Close-up on the biscuit breakfast goodness. Gotta go sausage though, bacon fans. Trust me.

Jason boldly inquiring about the make-up of the mysterious Hawaiian Breakfast sliders, which some food bloggers claim is the only way to Buttermilk, though I'm holding out for the extremely rare pumpkin croissant.

A big perk about the Brig parking lot is the long bench where you sit, often with others, and eat your food truck treasure. Other places, you might have to get back in your car; or wait and drive someplace more conducive to picnicking, like Santa Monica Beach.

Back of the Buttermilk Truck and a peek at the kitchen area.

A Hot Dog truck, which was sharing the parking lot with The Buttermilk Truck. We were hoping for King Kone or The Sweets Truck, but no luck.

Then this is one of the Calbi Trucks, which is Mexican food, arriving as we walked away.

That’s about it for tonight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

(Oh, yeah. I had my FINAL dental appointment today. Every thing’s finally done, that needs to be done. Whew!)

Hello and welcome to Limboville where everyday there’s a food truck to delight your palate and a movie to catch on the flat screen, but only after you finish your writing for the day!

Jason and I have fallen into an excellent routine, as you can tell. I know he misses the fam and is probably, as I mentioned, tired of sleeping on my couch; while I am starting to think more and more: “Wow, I’m supposed to move in ten days or so, Jacob and I should find a place!” Meanwhile, we carrying on with the task at hand which is trying to discern what are marching orders are, while prepping for whatever those marching orders might be – which means clearing the deck of as many of our writing commitments as we can, so that we can leap into whatever comes, right when it comes, free and clear. We really have kept the pedal to the meddle and seamlessly pounded away on various projects. Jason and I aren’t usually in the same room, let alone this long, as we work; so it’s been interesting to see that nothing in the process – or the quality – changes with the difference in physical proximity. I didn’t really expect it to, but still good to see.

Onward to the main event:

- Saw INCEPTION. Yes, Christopher Nolan is a Cinematic God. Yes, I was blown away by the movie. (It was a heist set in someone’s dreams!! This is my kind of story!!) But, I’m not sure it’s for everyone – so be forewarned. If you can maintain an open mind – I think you’ll love it, too.

-We got our first phone call from the Agents today. Pretty surreal experience. Just right out of the blue. Suddenly we’re on the phone with them. It was a great sign though – means they’re moving fast and eager to put us out there. They seem to be on full offensive mode.

-We were watching the Cardinals-Phillies (a.k.a. the Home Run Derby) and the sound was up when they called. Jason’s a big Phillies fan and if you don’t know who I was rooting for, then I don’t know what to tell you. We were deep into work on two different projects, too. So, the call became a bit of a slapstick moment. Jason got the call first on his cell and didn’t know how to turn down the volume on the TV, so dashed out of the apartment to the courtyard, where I was leaving a message for my dentist. I didn’t quite have time to ask what the issue was, because then my other line on the cell went off and I found myself in a conference call with Jason and everybody else. Made us both laugh afterwards.

- The Agents were calling because they have a TV Agent at UTA. She’s young and, according to research, a very up and coming Agent – but established with some good mid and higher level TV Writers on her client roster. Some of which included the co-creator of HUNG (on HBO), writers on MODERN FAMILY, BREAKING BAD, THE SIMPSONS, and THE BIG BANG THEORY to name a few. We’re excited to meet with her. That’s what the unexpected call was for. Our guys, Ramses & Mike have been talking us up to a few different partners and fellow agents since we came on board last Thursday. They got this agent to read BOSS and she flipped for it. So, we’ll meet with her this week.

- Also, we learned towards the end of the day that our scripts would be going over to UTA to be read. Which means a game plan is being formulated by everyone. The fact that the scripts went over from our manager’s office to UTA was a good, early signed. If either one was way off base, they would’ve come back to us with notes. So, we were relieved. Hopefully the Agents will like them and we’ll barrel full steam ahead.

-To sum up, this is all really fantastic movement. Much faster than we expected, actually. All the reps really seem to be on fire – determined to make something happen sooner rather than later, which is great. It’s put Jason and I in a weird, but wonderful place, where there’s almost daily movement on things – which is exciting and promising and nerve wracking. It won’t always be like this, or course, but for getting the plane (re:our career) off the runway, it really means a lot to have UTA setting such a quick pace.

-The down side is that Jason’s stuck here for a bit longer, at least, and I don’t know if I’m moving or not, now; let alone able to look for a job. Which has been interesting. We’ll see. We both need to assess how things go and were we’re headed in the short-term. The TV Agent could also send us out on a bunch of meetings. So, everything might become even more crazy here shortly.

-Jacob and I had thought we’d found a place. But the landlord came back to us tonight requesting first and last month’s rent, plus an additional months rent up front as security deposit. How much would that come to? $4800 split two ways. The reason? Supposedly b/c I had just been signed and he was afraid that I would make a ton of money all of a sudden and move out in six months, leaving him hanging. #OnlyInHollywood.

- Finally tracked down the elusive Buttermilk Food Truck this morning for breakfast. It may very well be my new favorite. Red Velvet Pancake Bites with chocolate chips and a vanilla custard on top, plus an egg-bacon-biscuit sandwich that was beyond heavenly? Count me in!

-We’re headed to have lunch tomorrow on the Disney Lot with a friend who’s a Writer’s Assistant on BROTHERS & SISTERS and an extremely talented writer-producer, as well. Always fun to visit friends on a lot and eat in the commissary.

-Cardinals are 5-0 since the all-star break. Will they keep it up, or is this a big tease?

That’s about it. Until tomorrow!

We’ve been waiting out the weekend and we’re almost there. Why? For word Monday as to what happens next, on the writing side of things.

Jason and I had some fun relaxing and celebrating in our own way the past few days (Hung out with friends, chased Food Trucks and watched lots of Movies!) Yes, there was some writing. Jason was much more disciplined than I, though. He cranked through a rewrite we have due, which was impressive. While I…I…talked on the phone, saw an apartment with Jacob and….took a nap or two. Yes, I’ve been slacking and I need to get rolling on a few things here.

Poor Jason’s been relegated to sleeping on my couch, which can’t be comfortable, and must be driving him a bit crazy. He’s uncertain if he’ll be able to rejoin his family on the rest of there East Coast vacation. I know he’s thrilled to be here and to have this happening, but I also know that he misses all of his friends and family and wishes that he was with them, too.

Why is           here with me and not out in Topanga in his much more comfortable (than my couch) bed? He’s here b/c the Latshaw four have a house-sitter whom he can’t evict without knowing first if he must stay here. for sure There are pets to be tended to, among other things, and if he ends up going back east instead of having to stay  here in California; the intervening weeks will be to long and he’ll need the housesitter back. So, it’s been better to wait until we receive word tomorrow (hopefully.) I know he’d love to get back to his family if we’re not doing anything immediately. Or at least sleep in his own bed!

It will be good to get some sense of what we need to do and the demands placed on us the next few weeks. I’m right there with Jason – a supposed bigplanned, still need to look at apartments ( I think we found one. More on that tomorrow.) I also need a job and those are looking tougher an tougher to come these days.

Today, Jason and I officially signed with United Talent Agency for representation in Television and Film.

Here is the official UTA web site and also here’s another run down on the Agency, in case your curious.

This is what all the hullabaloo and anxiety and excitement was about the past few days. Heck, it’s ongoing!

This agency is one of the of the Hollywood Big Four, which are CAA, WME, ICM, and, of course, UTA. These four agencies are the largest, strongest, and most successful in town. UTA alone has over a hundred agents and 2,000 clients in all media – film, television, production, music, literary, and online. Here’s a brief example of UTA’s client list:

Key clients include actors Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Owen Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez,Paul Giamatti, Anthony Hopkins, Tim Robbins, Seth Rogen, James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Tracy Morgan, Martin Lawrence, Simon Pegg, Bryan Cranston,Patrick Dempsey, Mark Ruffalo, Ice Cube, and Keenen Ivory Wayans; filmmakers and screenwriters Joel and Ethan Coen,Judd Apatow, Andrew Adamson, Wes Anderson, John August, Noah Baumbach, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Julian Fellowes, Curtis Hanson, Charlie Kaufman, Ehren Kruger, Peter Morgan, Mike White, F. Gary Gray, Lasse Hallstrom, Greg Mottola, Jimmy Hayward, Adam Shankman, Phillip Noyce, Nicholas Stoller, and Sylvain White; television writers and creators Dick Wolf, David Chase, Alan Ball, Tom Fontana, Ed Bernero and Steven Levitan, as well as non-fiction television producers Tom Forman, Allison Grodner and Sally Ann Salsano.

It is, in so many words,  a major, major break for us – hopefully one that will put us over the top.  I really can’t stress that enough. This is easily on par with my acceptance into UCLA – a day dreamed about, hoped for even, but one that I didn’t ever expect. You can’t allow yourself to do that, expect something like this to happen to you. Many, many writers in this town never attain this kind of representation and have healthy, happy careers. But, you do dare to dream. These Agents (Ramses IsHak & Mike Sheresky) were our top pick, as well as UTA, when we started this process two months ago. So we are not only ecstatic that we got Agents, but that we got these two Agents. Here’s what one friend, who’s been a creative exec in the industry for the past year said our about our new Agents:

Swear I am not just saying this to make you feel even better than you already do, but those two agents are seriously the nicest, most talented duo in the industry. Love them!!!! You guys could not have done better… seriously. So happy you are working with them!

It’s still kind of hard to process. It’s really just the beginning and there’s still a ton of work to be done. Heck, I don’t have a job, or much money, and I’m about to move in two weeks and don’t even know if I can get a job now – not if we want this momentum to continue on.

Well, that’s for tomorrow. Tonight, at least, I can bask in climbing another mountain in this crazy business. A fairly major one at that.

Thank God, I didn’t leave early and miss this miracle.