Sunday, November 13, 2005 | by nathan
Friday night, when I was walking around the corner of Lindsey and Jenkins, behind the stadium, getting sound from all the local businesses, after we finished wrapping the shoot at Fort Sill, I really felt like a journalist - more like one than I ever have. I had been up since 4:15 AM, and here I was at 11 PM, walking around, getting the story. God, that felt wonderful.
Then today, we met the producers for brunch, which went well, but Ana was browbeating me about the gradebook, and the class evaluation sheets, and generally making me feel like a failure. The Spanish Lady is wonderful, she really is, but when she gets on you, you start to really feel like shit, and you can’t really argue with her, because, well, yeah - you should’ve done your stuff. For the better part of today I’ve been kind of hating my graduate assistantship, questioning the sobriety of the people in the selection committee, who decided that putting someone who trained as a roadie and a concert tech in charge of a video productions class. I began to feel sorry for my students, and I also began to despair.
Keaton helped me feel better. “That’s just how it is with Ana,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to ignore her.”
“It’s hard to ignore when you feel like your boss hates you,” I replied. But inside, the light began to shine again, even just a little bit.
Then later, I was talking to Julian and Patty about things, and Ana came right up behind them and heard me. Although, the saving grace was that I was only complaining about how hard it is to schedule classes because the Video Production labs last from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM, which is a bitch of a block of time. Ana says she wants to go back to Spain; I would miss her, but also, I wouldn’t.
Still, this weekend was incredible. We watched Anthony’s film, “The Camden 28,” last night over at Steve Gillon’s house. It was this amazing film about this group of people in Camden, NJ, who protested the Vietnam War by breaking into the local draft office and destroying records. Mostly, though, it was about forgiveness; one of their number ratted them out to the FBI, and as they were all about to go to trial, his son died, and all these people he betrayed showed up to help him and his wife get through this incredibly difficult time. It was amazing.
Yesterday was Monica’s wedding. I got to wear my incredibly tacky tux, and marry off my adopted little sister. When they opened the doors, instead of the Wedding March, Monica walked into the church to “Sweet Child O Mine” by Guns ‘n’ Roses. It was awesome. Here are a couple pics:

I was still a tired boy in my zoot suit. Notice the huge, dark circles under my eyes.

Bride with a Big Gulp!!

The flower girls’ dresses in our lovely colors of black and hot pink. Oh hell yes. Hell yes.
In general, a great wedding, and a great time getting to hang with Eric and his fiancee and his family. Paul, Eric’s dad, said to me after the wedding, “Don’t ever stop being our adopted son. I couldn’t love you more if you were my own.”
I didn’t stop smiling the whole rest of the night.
Later, the DJ at the reception played “We Are Family,” and I thought, “Yep.”
**wink**
The Ankenman family took me in in a lot of ways and taught me that I am not, that I cannot, make it all on my own all the time. I love them like they are my own, too.
Song: “We’re All Light” by XTC.
So all in all, a stressful, exhausting, wonderful weekend. I am so, so tired and ready for this semester to be over, but I am more in love with my work and my life with every moment that passes, even in the really hard ones.
Here are two CDs I can’t get enough of lately:

AND

Both amazing albums - check them out, but now I am listening to XTC. Still.
And now, to finish up, here are some pictures from the History Channel shoot:

John Verhoff, producer, with Carter, Ana, and Keaton just outside where the Cooper Skull lies. The Cooper Skull is the oldest known piece of art in North America, dating at 10,000 years, which was found on the Cooper Ranch in Oklahoma.

Brandon, running Camera 2, into which my boom mic was mixed.

Keaton, Ana, and Ed set up the lighting for the opening shot, outside the “People of Oklahoma” exhibit at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

The news ticker on the outside of Gaylord Hall, which houses the Journalism school, giving the headline from the Oklahoma Daily about our project. Walking below this was a group of students who were staging a “Take Back the Night” protest. This prompted the following conversation between me and Eric at Monica’s wedding:
Eric:What are these people protesting?
Me:Oh, Rape.
Eric:Yeah, I’m against that too.
And now, to end up this post, here is a nice picture I accidentally took in the car:

I love my life. Except my Tuesday night class.