Waking up at 6:30 is never easy when you’re used to getting up for work about two hours later than that, so I overslept a little and got up at 6:45. I had set the alarm on radio (Amanda prefers that horrible buzzer) but I didn’t realize the volume was turned down. Anyway, they want the people who are directing at church to come in an hour before the service now to help go through things and set up shots and the like, so I was there at 7:30. I mostly sat around though, even though I was looking for things to do. I think it would have been helpful to get there early if the camera people showed up more than five minutes early. I think the plan was for them to get there half an hour early, but that doesn’t seem to have taken yet.
Today was the first day I was able to direct with four cameras- one in the front, two in the back and one on stage. It allowed a lot of flexibility and was a lot of fun. It helped that I had some good camera people, that I didn’t have to tell each and every person what shots to get. That would have been madness. As it was though, during one of the songs, Mike, the preacher, was back there and gave me some kudos on a superimposed two-shot of the singers, and after the service I was talking to the Mike who helps manage the production about getting people together and giving some kind of instruction on camera work and the like. He also complimented today’s direction. It’s fun doing such work with people who enjoy doing what they’re doing and who get excited about making things even better.
Ben and Jessica had some errands to do and were getting their furniture delivered today, so we didn’t do the usual breakfast thing with them but they invited us over for dinner. We finished addressing and sealing most of the Christmas cards then Amanda went to do some shopping. Frustrated, she was back in about an hour. After a while we went headed out (with Bruce in his nice new birthday sweater) and stopped by Pier 1 to get a few gifts then headed out to see the Lambeths.
It took us forever because there was a fire on Highway 17. It was already out but one lane was blocked off and it literally took us probably half an hour to go a mile. It was ridiculous. The traffic up there is always bad anyway, but this was terrible.
Ben and Jessica’s place is nice. It’s spacious with a nice yard and it’s not in a crowded area. We had dinner with them- grilled cheese and white chili. I actually liked the white chili (which I’d never heard of before, and I don’t like regular chili). After that we watched Christmas Vacation (during which I took a brief nap) and ate some pie then we sat around and watched the end of Home Makeover.