Blizzards in Los Angeles

Our apartment is a mess right now. But it’s not our mid-week, too tired to clean up mess. We are in the midst of packing up our apartment. Our big move to L.A. is looming just around the corner. Now, I know what Billy Collins said:

“The more you clean, the more brilliant

your writing will be…”

So in the mess that is my apartment right now, I’m clearing a space on the couch to make room for some brilliant writing—well, some writing anyway.

These last couple months leading up to L.A. have gone by fast, though sometimes it felt like we'd be  in Pittsburgh for years rather than just a few weeks. Gabe has mostly been focusing on his studies, but at the beginning of March, he was able to go to South by Southwest, a festival of film, music, and interactive media in Austin, Texas. He got the chance to see many film premieres like 21 Jump Street, Blue Like Jazz, and Raid Redemption. One independent film he saw that’s actually coming out in theaters in June is Safety Not Guaranteed, a film featuring many of our favorite people like Aubrey Plaza (April from Parks and Rec), Mark Dupless (Pete in The League), and Jake Johnson (Nick from New Girl). A graduate of Gabe’s program actually was a production coordinator for the film, which basically means that he helped to coordinate and manage the schedule for production of the film. Here’s a link to the trailer in case you’re interested. The festival premiered many films like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jSnAs7mq8

Since he came back from the festival, Gabe has been applying to all the internships that he can. In case you don’t remember, the main focus of Gabe’s program is to get real life experience in the entertainment industry. Part of this is getting a summer internship in Los Angeles or New York. He had interviews with companies like Sony Entertainment, USA, Blizzard, and Zynga. The whole process has been stressful and grueling for both of us. In some cases, there are hundreds of other students applying for the same position. I thought for sure that Gabe would have heard from someone at least a month ago, but Gabe and most of his classmates have only starting hearing back within the last couple weeks. Up until then, Gabe thought his prospects looked pretty grim. Then, he got another call from Blizzard Entertainment. They had created a new position and said Gabe was at the top of the list.

After three interviews, lots of prayers, and many days without any word from California, Gabe was offered an internship with Blizzard! More details to come….