Bats, Heroes, Survivors

What's been going on around here?

Well, friends/film school alums Safia and Melanie came in from L.A. and Atlanta respectively to work on Max's thesis film for a few days. His film has been comprised of entirely night shoots so the days here have been quiet because everyone gets home and dives into bed (or couch or roll out mattress) just as I am getting up. Mostly I work in my little room, but each time I emerge to forage for food or supply of some sort, I pass through the rest of the house, all the shades drawn, sleeping forms strewn about...kind of like really large bats.

I HAVE been writing each day, though it feels less than productive because I've gotten sucked into one of those big whirling spirals of research that I may never use. I'm working on what started out as both a short and a light essay on how we use the word "survivor" in relationship to cancer, but all the things I'm reading could either deepen it, send it in new directions, or complete fuck it up. I feel like I can't decide until I have it all in notes, so the actual page count on the essay I'm supposed to be writing has not increased at all for several days, and that's a little panic inducing.

I've been suppressing the panic though, each evening when the bats fly out to their night shoot, because I've found a borrowed DVD set of Heroes Season One on top of our TV. Fortunately, such things seldom appear in our house because I exhibit little ability to indulge in moderation. I have watched all 23 episodes in 4 days, ranging from Friday, when I treated myself after 7 hours of editing by watching, quite reasonably, the double premiere episode, to Sunday, when I watched a less reasonable 8 episodes, finishing at 3AM and waking the next morning jittery and hung-over feeling.

But last night I watched the season finale and the bats flew back to their respective homes, and now it's just me and the survivors, duking it out.