Goin' Out To Cally – Part 38, U.C.L.Laid Back

As I approached Tim’s car on the U.S.C. campus I was frustrated to find a parking ticket located under the windshield wiper. Our unwelcoming excursion into Trojan territory was now complete. I angrily pulled the ticket off of the windshield and scanned it as I entered the car.

“How much is it?” Sunday asked.

I looked at it and tossed it into the glove compartment.

“What difference does it make? We’re not coming back here and Tim’s not coming back here either. If they mail him a ticket, I’ll pay for it. If not, then screw ‘em.” I said I as started the car and sped out of the parking lot.

Our trip to the U.C.L.A. campus was relatively quick by Los Angeles traffic standards. As we pulled into one of their parking lots Sunday and I decided not to ask for a tour, but just to walk around until we got kicked out.

As we bummed our way around campus we ran into a guy from the theater department, dressed in ragged clothes dotted with paint. I can’t remember his name, but we’ll call him Andy to make it easier.

We told Andy about our trip out to California and our experiences at USC. He nodded with a knowing smile and offered to give us a personal tour of the UCLA fine arts portion of the campus.

As we walked in and through the theater, around the film school and screenwriting departments, Andy gave us the real skinny, the truth that you wouldn’t find in a school brochure.

“They’ll tell you that the writing department and the film department work seamlessly together, but that’s so not true! The department heads hate each other! They’d rather eat their own young than help each other out. It sucks, but there’s not a lot we can do about it,” Andy said.

Andy had a great, subtle sense of humor. He found as much excitement in our trip to Cally as we did in his school. He was nice and charming and treated us like a regular person. He detailed all of the pros and cons of their school and what I could expect if I made the leap. After our impromptu tour I was certain of one thing, if I did end up going to film school in Los Angeles, it was going to be at UCLA.

Time flew by quickly and we found ourselves back where we started. We thanked Andy for the informative and honest tour. He said he was going to visit his friend who lived in Gainesville in a few months and asked if we could get together while we were there. I told him I had since moved from Gainesville, but, to my surprise, Sunday openly gave him her phone number. That seemed a bit reckless to me at the time, but it was Sunday’s call.

It would turn out that four months later, Andy showed up in Gainesville. Sunday called me to tell me he was coming, but my schedule didn’t permit me to meet them there. Apparently they had a nice time at the Winnjammer.

This evening, I lied on the floor and, again, failed miserably trying not to look at Sunday’s latest evening wear… a silky blue number with ruffles around the legs, by the way.

I closed my eyes and focused on the growing sense of relaxation inside me. After just two days I had accomplished most of what I had intended… I met a fellow Florida Gator working in the biz and I visited the two prominent film schools in the city. I could officially take a breath and relax.

Over the next two days we would aggressively pursue our relaxation at rival theme parks.

And so ended the eighth day on our trip to Cally.

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Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)