The analysts meeting was on April 2 & 3. I had to videotape about 10 executives saying short lines. The event production company sent a director from LA to oversee the shoots. We worked pretty well together and got everything done. I had to coach him as to what to expect from our executives. I think he went into it thinking that they would be willing to spend as much time as needed and would tolerate saying the short piece over and over again until the director got what he wanted. It didn't quite work out that way. These guys wanted nothing more than to say it once and get out as soon as possible. A few were willing to work with us and a few got pretty agitated and wouldn't say the line more than twice. I'm sure they had other things on their mind.
On Thursday the director went back to LA with 6 of the ten executives on tape. Plan was for them to cut the ones they had and come back on Monday to tape the rest of them on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We'd cut them in our studio and lay them down on beta tape the by noon on Wednesday to be shown the same day.
On Friday there was a knock on the studio door and I open it to discover an executive all ready for his shoot. Apparently there was a slight miscommunication between the last schedule we were given and what he was given. He was none too happy. He was re-scheduled for 8am sharp on Wednesday.
The weekend rolled around and Meredith and I had a busy day on Saturday. An old college roommate of Meredith's had invited us (and Troy) over to celebrate her fiancé's birthday. They live about 30 minutes or more out of town. We planned on showing up early and leaving before things really got started so that we could make it to film fund raiser.
Everything went as planned. We showed up at the party, hung out for a while and left. We went back to Meredith's house and dropped Troy off and picked up Carolyn (Meredith's business partner and housemate) and zipped off to the bar where the fund raiser was being held.
It was nice to see some old film friends. Really makes me want to find some time to get back into it and help out doing some indie film projects. We stuck around until after the raffle (we didn't win anything) and left to find some dinner. After a nice filling dinner at Texas Land and Cattle we drove back to Carolyn's to pick up troy and drop off Carolyn.
Meredith and I got home at about 10:30pm, opened the door and Troy went wandering inside. We stopped in the hallway and chit chatted about a few things. I continued into the living room in time to see the dog slip out the back door. I called to Meredith..."did you leave the back door open?". Often before we leave we put the dog outside and leave the door open so he can get back in by himself. So since he hasn't learned to close the door when he comes back in, we have to do it for him. And it is entirely feasible that if we weren't paying attention we'd just forget and leave the door open. She says "must of..." and approaches the door. About that time I notice that the dead bolt is still in the locked position and that the door is broken. Someone has kicked the door in. She immediately says "where's my notebook" and looks to the coffee table where we'd left it. It was gone.
I'm standing right next to the house phone, so I pick it up and dial 911. I tell the operator that my house has just been broken into. She wisely tells me that we should leave the house and that she is sending a police unit out. About that time, I say "oh crap, the gun!" which of course causes a stir on the other end of the line. I rush back into the bedroom and open the nightstand drawer to discover that my Berreta .40 caliber handgun is missing. At this point the operator is pretty insistent that we leave the house. At this point I'm pretty sure there is no one else in the house, but we vacate to the driveway anyway.
The sheriff arrives and quizzes me about the missing gun. They do a quick search through the house. We do a quick inventory from room to room.
- Meredith's notebook and about 10 DVD's from the middle of my collection (S's from the Sci-fi/fantasy section) from the living room.
- My camera bag with my 35mm SLR film camera, 28-135mm lens and flash from the spare bedroom. (luckily I had had my Scotland film rolls developed already)
- And older notebook I was using as a print server for a color printer I use for printing the surface of DVD's from the front computer room
- The Berreta 8040 .40 caliber handgun, a box of loose change (pennies, nickels and dimes) and a jar full of Euros and British pounds sterling from the bedroom.
The police dusted a few things for prints, took a report and left. I was expecting Grissom to come in a find microscopic epitheliums they'd get a one hour DNA analysis and arrest Col. Mustard before the night was over. Not so much.
Meredith called her parents who came over and boarded our broken door shut as a temporary safeguard for the night until we could put in a replacement.
We didn't sleep much. You feel so violated. You wake at every little noise. You dream about people sneaking into your room while you are asleep.
Sunday we went to Home Depot and bought a new door. Meredith's Dad was nice enough to help put it in...I say "help" when really I didn't do much at all. I'm grateful that he knows what he's doing with a hammer and nails. The door fits better and feels a bit more solid that the old one.
We slept a little better that night.
Monday I had to start dealing with the insurance company. First task was to come up with all the receipts for the expensive items.
Meredith was able to get a copy of her notebook invoice, I had the receipt for the gun and the camera lens...but couldn't find the receipt for the camera and flash.
I hardly throw any receipts out. I have mountains of receipts. I have receipts from trips to the grocery store from three years ago... Of course, I can't find what I really need. I gave up after a couple hours.
I called the store where I bought the camera and flash. They went out of their way and spent some time searching through their archives from 2001 until they found the invoices. I was reminded about how important good customer service is when considering purchasing decisions and repeat purchasing. I'll definitely be going back to purchase another camera even though their prices are higher than others, their customer service is top notch.
Tuesday and Wednesday brought about more executive filming. I felt the pressure on Wednesday. Not only did we have 3 executives in the studio to film, I had to turn around an edit for two of them recreating what had been done in LA for the other 6 all by noon. Somehow I was able to pull it off.
Thursday was rough as well. Occasionally we do live broadcast interviews with executives out of the studio to the national news like CNBC and Bloomberg. This executive was scheduled to appear live on a couple financial morning shows. TV runs on NY time, so everything is an hour earlier than ours, which of course meant a very early morning for me.
Friday was a bit more relaxing. I'm in pre-production on a new project that has to be done pretty quickly. This is one of those cases where their budget got cut at the last minute. So they come to us at the last minute wanting a rush job on something that they were willing to pay a dedicated full-time editor handsomely for. We get it thrown on our plate...and we have a lot of plates spinning at the same time.
Saturday Dad brought Grandpa over and we went our for breakfast. Dad and I have had a tradition of going out to breakfast on Saturday morning for several years now. He got the idea one year when he was up in Baudette, Minnesota, my mother's home town and residence of my Grandparents, Aunt and Uncle and my cousin. My Uncle and my Grandfather have been going out for breakfast on Saturday mornings for quite a long time. Even though my father and I live in the same town I don't get to see him much throughout the week. It's just a good opportunity to talk and catch up. I'm sure as the years go by I'll value these Saturday mornings even more.
My Grandparents are getting older and I should really try to make a point of spending more time with them before I no longer can.
Maybe next week.
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