Imaginary Friend

In the past year I have had the great fortune to make a new friend, her name is Aimee. There are so many amazing things about Aimee: she is a screenwriter, she loves good food, she has a family but makes time for herself and she and I have similar taste in many things. During my hospital stay, Aimee called to check on me daily, visited the hospital bringing books and DVDs and was just an all around great friend. I've met her husband Lee and her adorable high spirited daughter Ella, and Aimee has been to my house. Now the funny part of this, during all this time my husband has never met Aimee. Just one of those never crossed paths moment, I'm not hiding Aimee, they just haven't met. So, Steve has decided that Aimee is my "imaginary friend."
His reasoning: Debz know a "person", who likes exactly what she like, writes screenplays and has even entered and become a finalist in a screenplay competition and that he has never seen. This equals "imaginary friend." When I tell Steve about interesting things that Aimee and I talk about, or her writing Steve's answer is "You know, this imaginary friend of yours is very cool. Not creepy like the imaginary friends in the movies."
When I told Aimee about Steve's theory she said "Well, its better than him thinking you're having an affair."
On Saturdays after writing group, Aimee and I usually have lunch. This past Saturday we were laughing about imaginary friends, and setting up a time for Steve to meet Aimee when I suddenly had a Twilight Zone moment.
What if Aimee is imaginary? Meeting someone who feels like a kindred soul is a great and often rare experience. What if during my time in screenwriting, job change and life changing health problems I simply phased out from reality and created this friend? As I sat across the table, I glanced around the cafe to see if anyone was staring at our table. I figured that if I was sitting alone, talking and laughing to myself someone would be staring. No one was looking. This feeling lasted only a moment, but it was a strange feeling. It made me appreciate friendship and realize just how important friends are. It also made me realize how lucky we all are that we get to add to our group of friends! It also made me realize...I really got to set up a time for Steve to meet Aimee!

Zombie Jesus

Well, I'm taking my final draft of Zombie Jesus to my writing group this weekend. Many friends have told me that I should use a pen name on this script. Something to do with offending folks, but in all fairness to me, I get everyone in here, from ancient followers of Jesus, to "Der Pope", and a few others. I'm about to start sending out my scripts to various competitions, wouldn't it just be a dream if I ended up making a living off my writing? Okay, I'm not thinking that Zombie Jesus is going to be the next big Hollywood picture, though that would be to awesome for words.  This script started because of my husband, he was the one who thought it would be cool to make a bumpersticker that said: "Jesus, the original Zombie". 

Jon Stewart will see me through

Well it has been over a month since I last wrote. During this time the successful things I have been doing is finishing my full length screenplay and working on a short screenplay. I have also been sending out resumes and becoming a Jobdango addict. I have yet to get an interview. Combine that with a nasty cold that I've had for the past couple of weeks and I got: Depressed! That's right, I sit in front of my computer looking over my resume again and again thinking "What's wrong with me? Why can't I get an interview." 

My wise friends point out that it will take time. Then some of them go on about how terrifying it is out there, how THOUSANDS of people all go for the same job, how horrible the economy is, etc. The one thing these wise people all have in common: they are employed. I don't know if they realize this, but telling me, a person laid off because of this economy, about how bad things are is not just preaching to the choir, it's beating me over the head with the damn hymnal! 

Which brings me to the other thing I have been doing with my time. I watch The Daily Show on my computer. Somehow, Jon Stewart can tell me how bad things are, but makes me laugh about it! He doesn't point out that I'm lucky because my husband works, he just simply points out how outrageous it is that we got here. So now, when things get crazy grim, I turn to Jon Stewart. If anything is going to keep me sane its humor!