I will be sitting on luggage.

Posted in Nov 2008...

I'm not in the least bit superstitious. I purposely walk under ladders, I make black cats run cross the road in front of me. Hell, I have been trying to break mirrors since i was born, and i want my two dollar bills without the edges cut off. I will not pick pins, neither will I sit on my luggage before traveling. Russians are wired anyway, why should I care about sitting on my luggage? And in a typical stereotype, I might be smuggling my relative to whatever country I'm going to. It's hard enough that they have to travel in the luggage compartment (or whatever fancy name they have for that hold in a plane), without me having to sit on them!

But I traveled on Tuesday night, and i did not sit on my luggage. Partly because it was just ONE backpack, and I'm not into molesting backpacks. Little did I know what I was about to enter. Not twilight Zone. Things move way too nicely there I tell yah! I left DVP at the get-away resort and came back to work on Thursday morning. (Oh yeah, you don't know that he is in Kenya. Well, now you do. A story for another day). Where was I? Oh yeah, I came back to work. Finally, after months and months of editing, the 'TV Ad that is a movie', it was time to run transmission copies. I made up my mind a long time ago that i will not learn how to edit... ever. And i will rely on my boss to do it ...and the interns. As luck would have it, my boss is off filming Gorillas in Rwanda. I did not need him, I thought.

At around noon, i send one of the interns to have the TX (transmission copy) put on a Betacam format - which is what is required to send to a TV station. Once he leaves the office, I figure that that is out of my hands and it should be done soon, give or take an hour. So I blissfully go on with my work, until at 2 pm, it dawns on me that the the guy i sent is yet to communicate! So i frantically call him and what do you know, they have not even started work on my TX! Now, i think i should point out that we promised client they will have it ready by 4.pm. A raise a little hell, a baby hell to be precise and they start working on it. 2 hours later, the TX is done. But what do you know? It can't play back well. The colour correction is all wrong. So, it's time to deliver to client, and i have nothing!! So i call client and try a little bit of damage control. Wonder why it's called 'control' when it already happened! Client agrees with the option of putting the TX on DV Cam tape, and i cross my fingers, hoping that works. It does but we have to beat the traffic to the clients office. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get the TX done on Beta at some other place. My other boss even offers to drive me there. I get there and all excited that I can still deliver what clients wants...NOT! The DVD i went with wont open!!! So I call my other boss in Rwanda for some troubleshooting. I'm on phone with him getting instructions, and relaying the same instructions to another intern in our edit suite - on phone. Yes. I'm on two phones at the same time. Glad I was not driving! Since the DVD has refused to playback, we figure than maybe i should go back with a Mini DV tape. Which is why I'm on two phones.

I get back to my office and rush to the edit suite. All the instructions i had been giving on phone did not work, so i decide to do it myself. So there I am.. lost in an edit suite...only to finally figure out, 1 hour later that one of cables have a problem.

Meanwhile, DVP and I were supposed to have an interview with MNET Africa and they wanted to do a recce of my house. We had agreed that they could pick me from the office at 5 pm, since i did not anticipate to be in the office long. Since they were in the neighbourhood, they thought it a good idea to pick me at 4.30pm. Wrong move! It was now 6 pm, and they were still parked outside my office, watching me making the runarounds like a headless chicken. What imagery!

Then, as if there could not be a better time in the world, it starts to rain. I'm worrying about my laundry that has been in the hanging lines since Tuesday then remember that even DVP is not sheltered. When i left him at the getaway place, i accidentally left with his phone! He could not call me to check what time I'll be home and he had no spare keys to let himself in. By the way, I did not have the keys on me. I had left the painters doing their thing in my living room, what with the aftermath of the partying Gothic, which by the way, has been on the local news way too much. I had asked the caretaker to give the keys to the night guard who should give the same to DVP when he lets him in. I make it clear that i do not have another set of keys, neither does DVP, and insist on the importance of giving the key to the guard. So i stopped worrying about that, knowing that it has sunk in. It becomes apparent that i will not deliver the TX to my client, because by the time i figure out that i should carry our whole edit suite to the other company, it's about 8.pm, far too late! So i have to make that call of shame. But the idea to give her the DV Cam tapes was a good one since that worked. It's now 9 pm and i just want to go home. I call my taxi guy who tells me that he is closed for the day. WHAT? He promises to call another one for me. Oh, by now, the MNET Africa guys who were to drive me home have left. They decided to wait for me in my neighbourhood. The replacement taxi guy is not available, so have to look for another one. Finally arrives to pick me up at 10.00 pm. I get home. I ask the night guard for the key. He says don't have it. He has a phone number though. Great, I can open my house with a phone number! I call the caretaker who tells me that he thought it was not safe to leave the keys with the guard, so he left with them. I breathe in.. deeply. That chill you felt was me breathing in very very deeply. Calmly, I ask him to bring me the keys. He says he is too far gone and cannot come back. I'm amazed at how calm i still remained. Must be all the air i sucked in! Finally he agrees to come back. 30 minutes later, he arrives. MNET crew recce's my house, decides it's fit for the interview, meanwhile, DVP is fishily drunk. He has been at the bar since 3pm.. waiting on me to come home. Poor man.

To crown it all, i had stolen 45 minutes of my 1 hour lunch to make my hair. I finally decided to change from my dreadlocks to braids. Normally, this process takes 2 hours. I had about 7 (seven) women working on my hair. The result was my hair being done in 45 minutes, and my scalp feeling only what i can only assume the soil feels during the California fires.

I did not sleep. My head was on fire.

Perfect end to my day!

This is why I will be sitting on my luggage from now henceforth!

They do sit on luggage here too!