Turned out to be no big deal.

That is my seven word summary of today. I went to VFS, chatted with Patrick Quigley who is handling my application about hither and thither, and took the tour of the writing floor, got an info packet, and came home.

I think the main reason they get people to come in for the tour et al is to do the basic impression test to make sure you’re not an axe murderer, a creeper, or a mutant from space. You learn a lot about a person just by meeting and conversing with them for five minutes. That’s the whole idea behind speed dating. So while a little part of me was thinking “I traveled an hour and a half for this?”, I can see why they do it.

It lets them weed out the really bad candidates who nevertheless look good on paper.

And I am confident that I made a good impression. They seem to be happy with my application (I made sure to infuse it with my signature charm) and my writing samples will be adjudicated soonishly. I am quite certain they will approve.

I sent them a political essay (You Will Burn In Hell, about how nobody can possibly follow every part of the Bible, despite what mindless literalists try to claim), a short story (Rust In The Sunset), a skit (Evening Pamphlet), and Maple Leaf Menace, which is a script for a short film.

Hey, they said I could send up to 4. So I sent 4. Wanted to show my range.

Basically, I figure that those samples will, at the very least, show that I have loads of raw talent that could really benefit from the education at VFS. That is more or less how I see it myself. I have been exercising my writing muscles on my own for nearly five years now, but there is only so far I can get by myself.

What I need is outside input from those in the know, and structured challenges for me to fulfill. The VFS program offers both of those in spades, and I am confident that they will see that I could be a star student if given the chance.

The trip to and fro was uneventful. My first time on the Millennial Line, despite having live in Richmond continuously since it was built in 2010, four years ago. The stations are very nice. They have a kind of elegant simplicity belying a true depth of design sense that I admire. They seem elegant and minimalist without seeming bare or spartan. They make great use of glass and wood without seeming cheesy or cheap.

I like them, is what I am saying.

And I love that the downtown stations are built right into the street, just like the subway stations I have seen in TV and movies. The one bad thing about going over people’s heads instead of under their feet is that you don’t get that awesome feeling when you emerge from the subway directly onto the street and it is like you just emerged from a hidden world.

Getting from Waterfront Station to VFS is super easy. The station is about ten steps from being on West Hastings (it’s on Granville), so it was easy to just walk the four or five blocks downhill to 198 West Hastings.

Technically, I could have taken a bus, but it was such a nice day and my leg was doing very well, so I figured “Why increase my tension by waiting for a bus when it’s not that far away?”.

So I had a pleasant walk through Gastown, gaining amusement from how hard everything seems to be trying to be hip and cool without looking like it is trying to be hip and cool.

As for The Tour, there was not a heck of a lot to see. The writing floor of 198 West Hastings is just a bunch of conference rooms and a pocket sized writer’s lounge. After all, what more do writers need? Writing for film and television is mostly about meetings, cold reads, story conferences, and that sort of thing. Sure, we writers need time alone to do our thing, but if you are working in media, a lot of it is going to be collaborative.

Which means I am going to have to get used to group work after all. Dammit. Oh well, at least the people I work with will actually be interested in the work and trying as hard as they can to make it succeed, and not just a bunch of assholes trying to get out of doing any work while being as obstructive and obnoxious as possible.

Yeah, I got issues.

One neat thing about the writing floor is that it has its own little kitchen, so I could bring food from home and cook it there. That’s better than my other option, brown-bagging it entirely. I can’t afford to eat out for lunch every school day… that would be 20 schooldays a month at a minimum $10/day, so… yikes… so I would have to bring food from home at least some of the time.

I will take care of getting my ID on Friday, and I have been assured that it’s no big deal if I get it in late. They are not going to hold the whole thing up just on the ID. So, phew.

But now I have a bigger challenge : coming up with the $1000 deposit. I read about that on the website, but I didn’t realize until Patrick told me that they will expect that deposit like, the minute they approve my application, and that could be as soon as next Monday.

Patrick said that they would probably take $500 and then work out a plan for me to pay the rest. I could afford to pay them $100/month easy, or $200/month with somewhat of a pinch.

But right now, on my own, I could only come up with $200 tops, and so I am going to have to find some kind individual to lend me the other $300 or I might be up shit creek again.

Oh well, I am sure someone can pony up the cash. It will truly be a loan, as I will just pay it back from the student loan money when I get the chance.

Tomorrow (or possibly later tonight, if I am feeling ambitious), I am going to tackle the student loan application, and try to bag myself as much funding as I possibly can.

Turns out, being an emotional cripple is good for something after all : government money! w00t!

Talk to you again tomorrow, folks!