I miss those penguin pajamas.

Orientation week came to a close last night, heralding the death of both my social life and my sobriety, for a time. At least we went out with a bang, ladies and gentlemen. Or a blur, as the case may be.

I feel like I've already learned more than I expected to, and we haven't even really started classes yet. For those playing the MFA home game, we've had intense workshops all week in things like Character Dream of Heaven/Hell and Dramatic Conflict, the Dramatic Question and Socrates, and my professors have already filled my head with complicated, philosophical thoughts on the Dramatist as an artist and on what Drama is, and how we live through it. Even the acting workshop got me thinking. My roommate proclaimed that he could quit, go back to New York and get a refund from NYU and still feel as though he'd learned enough to call himself an MFA.

I can't imagine what we'll be like a year from now, other than unbearable know-it-alls. Heh.

Our homework for screenwriting on Tuesday is to produce three examples of Dramatic Conflict, any of which we would actually want to write. This is a lot harder than it sounds, but I won't go into the nuts and bolts of the process. Basically I have to come up with three viable script ideas -- subject to change, obviously, but still -- I'm sitting here wracking my brain. Mark said in class, "Just think of a task that must be done," but I'm kind of sitting here like -- how could I write a movie about taking out the garbage? I don't think that's the kind of task he meant.

Our first assignment in playwriting was to draft a scene consisting of at least 30 seconds of silence in which a character reveals an ugly, terrible secret about him or herself.

Naturally, my first thought was: this guy is making himself a sandwich, and he is a cannibal, and that sandwich is made of people-meat. I know, I know. My brain is a strange place sometimes. Needless to say, that's what I wrote, and while it tickles me in a dark kind of place, I did struggle a bit. There's a lot more to writing something like this than I ever anticipated. Good more, though, not the obnoxious details that drive a person crazy. I like details.

So when I was drunk last night, I'm pretty sure I cornered almost all of my professors and told them how awesome they are, and I meant it. It really is like suddenly being surrounded by people who speak the same bizarre, insane-person language that you do. Like long-lost family members reappearing after decades gone. They know us, because they were us.

Mark told us we were crazy, and to get a refund, immediately. He told us we write because we hear voices. He told us we write because we like going to work in our pajamas.

All these things are very true. It's actually kind of incredible to hear someone say them out loud, instead of just thinking them every day. Okay, maybe I don't think about working in my pajamas every day, but quite often, anyway. The penguin pajamas in particular.

Anyway, Selena sent me a card that I got today, which made me miss home and friends and family quite powerfully, but also made me giggle, and those things combined created a kind of safe, comfortable zen that burst through my hangover just when I needed it. I'd also like to thank Ian quite publicly for putting all these movies on my laptop, because they have kept me incredibly entertained all week when my brain could not hold any more knowledge, but I was too wired to sleep. Into the West took me like five days to get through! Perfect! That mini-series is seriously epic, if not incredibly silly at times. Jenny, do not watch it. It is not for you.

So that's about all the update my addled brain has energy for, but expect more in the week to come as classes begin to seriously kick my ass. Yay learning!