Lights, Camera, Action!

We shot a movie! My wife wrote a screenplay for a short film of a comedy about Mexican cardreaders, curanderos (faith healers), and two young women who get sucked into more than they bargained for (with a little twist at the end). It’s a tounge-in-cheek farce about certain aspects of Mexican-American culture, and you’d have to have lived it to get all the inside jokes. Nevertheless, my college friend Bill who is the director was originally from East Texas–and he still laughed at the script and agreed to do the project, so there’s plenty there for everyone.

From the beginning two years ago, I encouraged Claudia to formally write the script rather than just keep it as a loosely-written story, and I offered what I could in terms of suggestions. I had no idea it would ever be shot by us, thinking only that she may sell the script one day to someone who would do it. Claudia has been involved in several film projects by others, but all this was new to me. As the shoot date got postponed until my winter break this month, I was already fearing that I wouldn’t get the vacation I was really looking forward to. However, she supports me all the time by being here, managing the house, now also our daughter as well, so what’s one month of my time? Yes, I bitched and moaned, but in the end, I unequivocally supported her.

Of course, with these things, nothing goes as planned. We had agreed that I’d help make sure each day’s shoot got started by helping with whatever needed getting done, but then I’d be free to run the errands I’d need to to prepare for our return back to Mexico in a few days. From a few days before the 4-day shoot started, every day brought some crisis of planning, scheduling or worse that pretty much ate up the bulk of my day. As much as I wanted to flee and not look back, I either had to step up and made it happen behind the scenes or run the risk of the project falling through. None of us are film professionals, including Bill (who up to now has just worked on projects for himself and specific videos for work), so we were all learning as we went. Plus, nobody on this project was getting paid–all the actors and crew were doing this because they believed in the project and hoped that it would eventually get out there so they can use it as a credit. With all the volunteer work, it wasn’t like anybody could wave a heavy stick around. In spite of this, we did have equipment rental, equipment purchases, food, supplies, etc. and with each passing day, more money was being spent, and I wasn’t going to let what had already been spent go to waste. Ultimately, however, I wanted to make sure it happened for Claudia.

Being on the flip side now, I can look back and say I am really glad I did become as involved as I did. In spite of all the hassle, stress and bullshit drama that occurred with certain members of her family who dropped their support at critical times, I can see already that months, certainly years from now, I’m not going to remember the bad stuff in detail, but I’ll have the experience of helping to put this together for the rest of my life. Not too many med students get to claim shooting a movie in between semesters.

The process will take months in post-production, with Bill and me trading Final Cut Pro metadata over the ‘net. I had to buy a 230G external drive just to house the movie’s clips. 1080i expanded is HUGE. It’s out of my hands for the most part, since I have no real time to spend on this, in spite of my creative urges. Editing, assembling, etc. is my strength and the one area where I’d have the most to offer, but time is my enemy as I have my current semester, Kaplan, and Step 1 all coming up in the next few months. I wish I had 36 hour days and 10-day weeks.

(this post backdated manually to date shown which represents the bulk of the initial draft)

Vacation Fragments, Dec 10-23

A few things I have observed/experienced while on vacation, in no specific order just to keep y’all updated. This has been backdated to the 23rd as that’s when the last bullet point was written, but the post itself was a draft that was added to little by little. Rather than lose all those random thoughts since it never amounted to a coherent post, I’ll share them as they were written–no real connection between them. More in a bit…

• Always the optimist, my vacation is almost half over.
• As I predicted, not having my own space (both for us as a family (ie, our own house/apartment) and my personal space–both are vitally important) is wearing on me, psychologically. It’s also screwing up what little schedule baby had, leading to cranky parents.
• My dad watches way too much “House, MD,” a show I can’t stand (that’s for another post). He’s been through ongoing life-and-death medical issues in the last two years after escaping most of his life w/o having to deal with doctors at all, so I find the recent fascination with things medical both not surprising and pretty cool. However, this has some unfortunate side effects when combined with the fact that he is an attorney (estate/family planning, so there is hope for his soul on Judgment Day). Within two days of getting home, my mom’s dog (small terrier mix) of 15 years spiraled downwards to the point of being nearly non-reponsive. Mom asked me to go with Dad to the vet. To my mild embarassment, my dad proceeded to present THE DOG as if he was presenting a patient on rounds. He stopped short of differential diagnoses (for which I was thankful), but a medical dictionary in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing…
• My mother, always hungry to read/believe in something “new” about health and wellness, has a copy of that charlatan Kevin Trudeau’s Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About book. I’ve been toying with the idea of a Kevin Trudeau’s Lies, Lies and More Lies weekly column wherein I take quotes from his book and make fun of the excerpts with wild abandon.
• This is the last time I stay in the parents’ house for more than a week. Ever. Period. It’s not natural.
• I was so planning on going Christmas shopping, getting into the holiday spirit and all that jazz given that I, for the first vacation in forever, am able to be here before the final buying rush. Usually, I come in on the 23rd or the like, so the shopping has to have already been done or, more like last year, not really much at all given student budget constraints. Now with a baby, fergetaboutit. But still, I enjoy giving; however, the lack of disposable income combined with an ever-increasing intolerance for crowds, slow drivers, lack of parking, idiot drivers, kids out of school (junior/high school), and people who can’t drive all add up to a potentially negative experience.
• I wish I knew what caused such dryness and cracking in my nares, just in the first few mm or so. It’s not rubbing, it’s not excessive tissue use, but vaseline barely makes a dent and I’m chronically having cracked skin there and on the corners of my mouth. You’d think with a year and a half of medical education I’d at least make some stabs in the dark and get close. No zebras here, I’m sure, just a a seemingly unresolvable problem.
• Baby duty and other commitmnents aside, I’d love to spend some time in the OR. Too bad I’m not in Mexico anymore, because it’s not like I don’t have willing instructors (surgeons and anesthesiologists), just no way to justify the legal morass of the hospital for not having a “legitimate” reason to be there, even with the patient’s consent. Been there, done that. The maids have free reign of the surgery wing but I can’t be supervised and learn as a documented medical student. (obviously maids are not in an OR during a procedure, I understand, but you get the point–it’s not like they had to attend a 3-day inservice to learn all the rules, either)
• Mexicans. Not people from the country of Mexico as a whole, I mean the special ‘fresa’ variety that come from across the border (especially Monterrey) to shop and think they own the place because they have some money. Waving some large bills might impress your friends and delude you into thinking the world revolves around you, but it doesn’t. This bullet point deserves and will get its own post soon lest you think I’m some sort of bigot. My home town swells to more than 70% of its census size between the seasonal Winter Texans escaping the midwest/northeast/etc. and the Mexican commerce on any given weekend during this time. Trust me, you have to be from a border area to understand this.
• I am very grateful to have a family to come home to. As crazy as my relationship can be with my parents, with all the weird dynamics, side-stepping, and lack of effective communication, I never have to worry that I am welcome whenever I want to come in for a visit and stay for as long as I need. It’s hard to remind myself that annoying parents mean that they are still around to annoy you.

Hello from “The Ranch”

I’m back in Tex-ass, and as usual, it’s been a craaazy transition back to the USA.  “The Ranch,” by the way, is the term of semi-endearment for my in-law’s house in a small city on the Rio Grande River. It used to be far removed from most vestiges of civilization, but the little town is economically booming to the point where it’s more and more doable to stay for extended periods of time with the new stores, restaurants, etc.

Regarding the trip back, it was nice spending time w/Claudia alone. We had a flat tire 3 hours into our trip and the densest fog I’ve ever seen about 3 hours from the border in the mountains outside Monterrey, NL.  By the time we crossed into the US–4 hours late after a 16+ hour trip–I gotta say: Mexico never looked so good than in the rear-view mirror. It’s precisely for this reason that I shock myself when I admit that a part of me wants to go back.  I hate calling myself a homebody, but the truth is that I need my own private space, a refuge, a Bat Cave^tm if you will, to be happy and collect my thoughts to not feel so scattered.  Most classmates, being of the younger, 20-something variety, make the transition home with ease, sinking back in their old, comfy bed with their rooms just as they left them.  Others may have moved out some time ago, but being single, they find a good spot in the house and call it theirs.

Married with a kid sharing a bedroom for almost a month with nowhere else to go in the house except to commune with the parental units?  Pass the Xanax, please.  Add to that the fact that we have to share time with both sides, and packing baby gear every time gets, um….old.  Simple checks like ”Honey? Did you remember to bring the Orajel for her gums?” quickly turn into “What the hell do I have to do, tattoo ‘ORAFUCKINGJEL’ on my forehead?!  The crying and 3 fingers in her mouth wasn’t enough of a reminder?!?”  Of course, I exaggerate (mostly) but you get the idea.

Internet connectivity has been spotty because of all the moving around and no wireless at either house, so I haven’t written on the blog and was in email read-only mode for the most part. If you’ve sent me email, you’ll get a reply shortly.  Otherwise, as soon as I get my RSS reader on my laptop updated with my .ompl files from my desktop which stayed in Mexico, I’ll be back commenting on the blogs.

P.S.  If anybody has any suggestions for offline newsreaders for Windows (ick), I’d appreciate the help.  Bloglines and other excellent online aggregators don’t help with the spotty connectivity I have here.  Danke.