Here I Am, Here I Am! Over Here!

Holy cow, I almost forgot how to sign in to this bad boy.

Without getting too terribly boring and personal, I found out in May that our lease was not being renewed on our beloved duplex and therefore we had to find a new place - fast. With a couple of other irritations to contribute to my general feeling of panic while our household was in stasis for nearly two months, we did find a new great place that I do love and am really pleased to say we are almost settled into. (It's amazing how much time and talent it takes to move your items from a more than 1500 square foot flat to one that is just over 1300 square feet, especially when I'm a book collector and Chris is a pack rat.) However, one of my Christmas gifts this year was an IOU for a couple of bookcases and as soon as Chris can go to Ikea I'll get them, and finally the more than 15 or so boxes of unshelved books will be put away and I'll have a real office to work in again.

Until that happens, I'm planning on watching movies when I can and writing where I can. Netflix Instant has become one of the greatest things known to mankind, and my queue has surged to more than 170 titles (so far), most of them being classic foreign films, which is a complete accident. I'll be utilizing this service until we get storage for the many DVDs we have (another thing we lost with the other place - lots of built-in storage in the living room.)

I'm trying to revive our once-again defunct Film Club that I have with a couple of friends so that I not only have the excuse and time slot to see movies, but also the forum to discuss them (as much as I have to coax it out of them anyway).

Also coming down the pike is the Milwaukee Film Festival, which will be held at the end of September. I'm very excited to attend what I believe is my fifth festival (I'll have to count all of my press passes to know for sure) and will finally be able to experience it like I've been wanting to for years now - completely work free. Normally I would go to the festival at night, see a couple of movies, drive home late, get up early to go to work, lather rinse repeat. Obviously, writing doesn't really fit into the equation too well. This year, because of circumstances and well placed paid time off at work, I'm able to have the entire festival off this year, so I'm very excited about that.

So, in conclusion, after a few months of a necessary hiatus because life got in the way, I am hoping to not only start watching movies and posting reviews again, but to re-kick start my Great Directors Project on my other blog very soon. I hope you'll come back to join me.