Something that never fails to surprise me, no matter how many times I notice it:
Strangers in transit are often willing to tell you intensely personal things about their lives.

Damon (my roommate/one of my two BFFs) and I were on the bus with our bags of groceries today when a man (in his fifties, perhaps? Late forties? He had the kind of voice that sounded like every word was squeezed through some kind of strainer in his throat and was a huge effort to pronounce) asked us how close we were to Armitage (one of the major streets that goes all the way through Chicago). We told him. He answered a cell phone call: something about a wake. He then turned to us apologetically and informed us calmly that his mother had died and that the reason he needed to get to this particular street was to find a church at which to hold her funeral.

This is only one of many similar incidents - the guy in the airport who told me all about his divorce and his estranged son, the woman in the bus station who told me about her abusive husband - these stories weigh us down, and we are afraid to burden those closest to us with them, I suppose. When we are in transit, we are freed of our contexts for a small amount of time, and the stories come spilling out.

So the guy that was supposed to be collaborating with on my script idea is missing in action. I told him before New Year's that we'd wait 'til after New Year's to really start writing this thing. I've heard from him once since then and he told me that during the holidays his basement flooded or something so I said to take care of that then get back to me. Several weeks have gone by and I've heard absolutely nothing. I wrote him at the beginning of this week and as of this writing, I've heard approximately diddly-squat.

Now the one time I did get a correspondence from him he was still enthusiastic about working on this script.

I personally have put a lot of thought into this script but more from a visual and thematic standpoint. The whole point of recruiting another writer was to help me re-focus on the discipline aspects needed to write a feature length script. I'm tempted to ditch the guy and take a shot at it myself since I'm still very much into the themes of the story.

The new problem is one that I was afraid of occurring if I didn't get on this thing immediately. That problem is, I now have a whole new idea for a completely different script that I think will be a lot of fun to do. This is one I'd like to write by myself but wouldn't mind having another brain or two to help research and format the story. This particular story idea is a parody of 80's action movies, 80s teen movies as well as a zombie movie. Sounds crazy I know, but I think I have a story that will work. (This is also the first script idea I've had that I'm only interested in writing it to sell it.)

Basically all I'm asking is if there's anybody out there willing to sit through hours and hours of Chuck Norris, Brat Pack and zombie movies with me to help refine this bizarre script idea then hit me up.

The radiators in our building are always either on full blast or not on at all. I think the knobs on all the pipes are too old and painted over to move, and not just in our apartment.
Today was a little bit warmer out. Our radiators, however, remained on, and now it is 80 degrees. I just opened a window, and apparently I'm not the only one to do so.
Some people upstairs have their window open, and so I can hear loud laughter echoing in the alley outside.
Also, next door, it sounds like someone has one of those slide whistles, and has been playing it for the past half hours... that same cartoony sound.

I went to Rite Aid earlier and this guy there was trying to use a Safeway card. Outside, he asked me where there is a Safeway around here, and is Safeway 24 hours.

... now someone is singing showtunes. I love Summertime.