A dream becomes a nightmare...

Los Angeles has truly been all I've been wanting it to be. I've been having the time of my life, as I've said so many times on this blog. However, everything has turned into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. It's only a temporary setback, but I've had about all I can take the past couple days.

I was already having a bad day Thursday. The night before revealed to me that I had no idea where to go with my villain in my screenplay for class, and I needed to give an outline of at least act two the next day. I eventually gave up, hoping I'd have more luck in the morning. After my morning class on Thursday, I decided to head over to the library for a quiet place to work. It was a bit far to walk, so I decided to longboard with my laptop in tow. I've carried my laptop in my bag a LOT while longboarding, and since the sidewalks are so flat here there's usually not much risk involved. Also, I was carrying it in a new shoulder-style backpack that I got at Office Depot for just $5, which is much more comfortable on the longboard, but doesn't offer as much protection as my other bag. Anyway, you can see where this is going.

I was literally right in front of the library when I hit a rough patch in the sidewalk. The concrete was patched with some asphalt, and the contrast covered up a very deep gap between the far side of the asphalt patch and the concrete sidewalk beyond. I had no time to react as my longboard came to an abrupt stop and launched me forward. I'm okay, just a few scuffs and scratches. It was my laptop that took the damage. Really, it didn't feel like that hard of a hit. I wasn't going very fast, so the fall was just a little bit more dramatic than simply falling forward. However, that direct hit to the corner of my laptop was enough to obliterate the screen. I'm able to type this story for you courtesy of a monitor I borrowed from the center, and I'm very grateful to have a way to keep working.

That was the hardest part, really. It's really high stress out here, with classes and internship. I'm in the midst of a huge project at my internship, and it's getting down to the nitty gritty in my screenplay writing class. Thursday was probably the pinnacle of stress for the semester, and this whole ordeal just pushed me way over the edge. I've really just kind of shut down the past couple days. I figured that I would sleep it off and really get into fix-it mode this morning, but I was still wound really tight. So other than just getting a list of places to get an estimate tomorrow morning, I've done no real work today. I went to see the Toy Story 3D double feature at the El Capitan, and the trip down memory lane was very therapeutic. It brought me back to simpler times, eating Little Caesar's pizza in the old house at Pin Oak Circle on a sunday afternoon as we watched the original Toy Story all together for the billionth time. I also watched Wolverine at the bi-weekly Film Geek Night at the center, which exceeded my expectations.

At the moment, I feel that I am finally at ease. It was a long process, but I'm getting back into the swing. Fortunately, I came into this semester with a good emergency fund earned over a summer of roofing, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it on something so extraneous. In fact, I was really hoping I wouldn't spend it at all so I could put it into the "law school" fund. But whatever. It's just money. It think this is all just another lesson from God that my bank account should never be the source of my stability. It's a call to put my faith in him and trust he'll provide for all that I need no matter what trials and setbacks come my way. So that's what I'm going to do now. Just pay what I have to pay for my mistakes and move on. I think I'm ready for that.

I haven't said it yet on here, but I know my target audience is reading: Thanks for all the birthday cards! It was great to hear from all of the family. I feel so far away from everyone familiar at the moment, but I know I'm not alone out here. Computer headaches aside, things are going great out here. God is doing an incredible thing in my life at the moment, and I think big changes are still to come.