Monday, September 12, 2005

I'm So Tired

Part of the fun of having sleep apnea is dealing with the fact that I am severely out of shape. For the last year or so, I have been so tired that I have spent way too much time staying in and resting. Which means my body is in horrible shape. I can't climb a flight of stairs without being winded. More on this later.

Today I had the final shoot for a student film project I have been doing in Toronto. This has been a bit of an eye opener for me - I've been used to relatively professional productions where they make certain they take care of their actors.

On this shoot, it hasn't been like that. Not too much of a problem, but there were definitely time issues. We were only making a 7 minute short, and it ended up taking us about 20 hours of filming. A lot of this is due to inexperience. For example, the director was making changes during shoots. We'd just get a scene finished, and then he'd have a "great idea" and we'd shoot again.

There were other issues that slowed things down. It really got hard to be able to schedule more and more days for this project. Just in gas and parking, this thing cost me more than $100.00 to be part of. But its done now, thank God. The finished product had better be good.

So, back to the sleep apnea and horrible out of shapeitude (fuck you, its a word now). I decided it would be a good idea to take the bus in to the shoot. After all, it costs me about $15.00-20.00 in gas and parking, and only about $17.00 to take the bus. Also, I could relax and read instead of dealing with the crap traffic. The kicker was the weather - it was supposed to rain, and my car window (driver's side, natch) doesn't roll up all the way, so driving in the rain means I get wet.

Turns out, the bus depot in Toronto was a bit farther than I had thought, about a 5 minute walk. I was carrying a rather heavy case, but I made the walk with only one small heart attack. I couldn't believe how out of shape I was - I used to consider any walk less than a half an hour to be easy and quick, and now here I am dreading 5 minutes.

Then I had a realization - on the way back, I would have to carry my heavy case and an even heavier golf bag filled with swords (props I had lent the director for the film). I have to admit, I almost turned around and went home at that point, but I soldiered on.

Turns out, it was a damned good thing I took the bus this time. There was a U2 concert taking place that night, so I would have had to shell out like $20.00 just for parking. Fucking U2.

So, we shot, and things went well. Ahead of schedule for a change, and I was out by 9:00 pm. So, one long (ok, 5 minute) walk back to the bus terminal. I gratefully sank my ass down on a bench next to an arguing white-trash couple. The man and woman were arguing about something.

The woman had a very bad cough, and was angry because she had forgotten her inhaler in her purse. A purse which apparently her boyfriend had forgotten at Jerry's house. This was evidently a cause for concern for her, as Jerry has a tendancy of pawning anything he can get his hands on (or, as she so clearly put it "That cocksucker Jerry will pawn any fucking thing he can find, you stupid fuck").

Her boyfriend reminded her that the doctor said her asthma was pretty bad, and she would have to quit smoking soon (oh, did I mention that the asthmatic white trash lady was smoking a cigarette?). She said fine, but "...there's no way I'm givin' up the weed, eh".

So, the bus finally came, I loaded up my swords, and had a nice nap listening to my iPod (one of the single best purchases I have ever made, btw). You'll notice I don't recommend many products, but the iPod kicks ass.

Then, back home to watch Team America: World Police. And now, off to bed.

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