Working For The Weekend

Today, instead of doing my normal every-day thing of sitting around doing nothing, I decided to go with my Nanny and her Sunday School group on a field trip. I know. The thing is though, I adore old people. Just love them. They know so much about everything. I mean, they don't know how to text or how to work the Internet mostly but they can tell you the exact feelings they felt when they heard that JFK was assassinated. Or the joy of the first time they travelled alone, and the feel of the air in Israel. That's the kind of stuff that people just take for granted, you know. In school teachers always say "You might have grandparents old enough to remember" this or that and the fact is we do. We just don't take the time to ask. Any textbook can tell you what happened at any point and time in history, but sooner or later there won't be anyone around to tell us how it felt.

Anyway, back to the field trip. We went to this place called Vidalia, GA, famous for the Vidalia Sweet Onions. The whole point was to see this farm and how they grew and processed and sold onions. Whatever. I mean, it's mildly interesting but not really. What is really interesting to me is the people who work there.

First of all they are all foreign immigrants from Mexico. The family that owns the particular farm we toured is part of a national program that I forgot the name of. In the program, the family or farm that is hiring these people actually pays for their visas (something you need to immigrate, duh) to come to America. Now, these visas actually expire after the summer is over because that's when the harvesting is done. Anyway, the visas are paid for and the workers are picked up by buses and brought to the farm they are to work on. They're given dormitories that are actually on the farm, that are fully stocked with food and clothes and TV and all that jazz. They wake up in the morning and they work all day, pretty much six days a week. They get paid minimum wage, which is $7.25 at the moment. They are free to do whatever they want on their day off AND THEY DO PAY TAXES. They don't pay Social Security obviously, because they aren't eligible to receive Social Security. But once again, let me just say, they do in fact pay taxes.

Another thing you may not know is that farms that are part of this federal plan have to actually hire absolutely anyone who shows up to the farm and asks for a job. And that is fact, my friends. Anyone. The owner of the farm told me that if I showed up that day, having been a convicted murderer who was out on bail, she would have to hire me. No lie. Obviously, there's like a two day grace period where I have to prove that I can do the job but other than that, it's that simple. Just so you know, while I was there, I saw absolutely no full American citizens working that weren't a part of the immediate family. Obviously, these people are stealing "American jobs", right? Yeah. I'll tell you something, the whole time we were there these people were working non stop in the heat, no complaints, no breaks unless it was for a sip of water. Just the hardest working people, ever. The owner sang their praises about how they work so consistently and are so hardworking and dedicated. I mean, maybe if "Americans" had some good ole fashioned "American work ethic" we could get some crap accomplished. I mean really. And they were just the nicest people. Didn't speak a lick of English but they were so nice and happy to have such a wonderful atmosphere.

I think it is a real testament to the Mexican people as a whole that they want so desperately to improve their conditions that they will go so far as to move to another country for an entire summer (sometimes longer, because they can relocate to farms that grow crops that are harvested at different times) and do work that, let's face it, most Americans would cringe at for minimum wage and be perfectly content with that. It's inspirational is what it is. Americans should take a page out of their book if you ask me.

("Working for the Weekend" by Lover Boy)

Love You 'till the End

I'm sorry for those of you who don't care, but I had to say something about the tragedy that was last night's episode of LOST, "The Candidate".

Oh. Dear. God.

First of all, let me just say, there are a good many times in my life that I've been emotionally moved by a film, a certain episode of a TV show, a song, a work of art, a book, etc. I should probably make a list or at least a blog including some of them. Yeah, that's a good idea. Note to self. Anyways, there was a scene in "The Candidate" that was one of those times.

Even if you aren't a LOST fan, this scene is worth a watch. For those of you that mourn the loss of Jin, Sun, and Sayid (maybe Frank) like you mourn the loss of an old friend, I'm sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl12dAn5gnY

So, that son of a bitch Smokey (who I KNEW was evil all along) stashed a bomb in his backpack then switched backpacks with Jack right before all the Losties got on the Sub. Kate gets shot and everyone scrambles to roll out. Whenever they've got the Sub diving, Jack reaches for his bag for maybe some doctor stuff to help Kate out. Alas, he finds the bomb. Sayid (Mr. Republican Guard Bomb Specialist) says the only way to disarm it is to pull out the two wires at the same time. Jack says "No. Smokey can't kill us, he's trying to get us to kill ourselves by blowing up." Sawyer is like "Screw you, asshole. I've never ever liked you, we both love(d) the same girl, and you most def killed Juliet." So then Sawyer pulls out the wires, the bomb starts ticking faster, Sayid tells Jack about Desmond being alive and then he dashes as far away as possible with the bomb to give our friends a better chance at survival. I love you, Sayid. I'm really sorry that nothing in your life ever worked out.

So, bomb goes off. Frank gets hit by a latch door (dead?). Sub is filling up with water. Hurley wants to go after Sayid but Jack is like "There is no Sayid!" so Hurley goes off with Kate and an oxygen tank. Sun is stuck behind some sub stuff. Sawyer, Jin, and Jack manage to get the sub (refrigerator?) off of Sun. For a split second, I was sure it was going to be okay. Then: Sun is still stuck by some pipes or something. NOOOOOO!!! Sawyer gets knocked out. Jack gets him, starts heading to the oxygen tanks. Sun begs Jin to leave. Jin tells Jack to go, save Sawyer. Jack tries to give Jin the last oxygen tank: "Take this, I can get him out without it." Jin: "No. You can't, Jack."

The look in Jin's eyes when he tells Jack to go, it's like they have an understanding. Man to man. And Sun sees it, too. Without saying any words, it's like they're saying goodbye to their leader. He couldn't save everyone, after all.

Jin begins fighting against the pipes with a new determination. He is resolved to fight to his last breath. Sun, however, knows it is the end. You can see it in her eyes.

Sun: "Jin. You have to go."
Jin: "No. I can do this."
Sun: "No, no you can't. Please, go." (Sobbing)
Then Jin grabs her face with this determined fierceness.
Jin: "I won't leave you."
And he's fighting, and we all know it's no use. And we're crying with Sun because she knows too.
Jin: "I'm gonna get you out of here."
Sun: "No...go...go...please, go."
And then Jin looks at the door. For one second he thinks about leaving, if only so that their daughter Ji Yeon doesn't grow up without her parents. For that one second he contemplates his fateful choice: Give up the love of his life? or Leave his child parent less?
He turns back to Sun and even before the words leave his mouth, you know he'll never leave her.
Jin: (in Korean) "I won't leave you. I will never leave you again." (in English): "I love you, Sun."
And then they're both crying and they kiss. A kiss of promise, of goodbye, of forever. And we can see her wedding ring that she once lost in the episode that we see their first meeting in flashbacks.
Sun: "I love you."
And they kiss, and the water rises, and they look in to each other's eyes. They don't regret their choices. They don't regret their struggles. They are together and that's all that matters.

The sub sinks and so does our hearts. Just when we think it can't hurt anymore, we see the image of their clasped hands, together in death, slowly slip away from each other. It is the end of Sun and Jin and the tears fall even harder. As far as deaths go, that was pretty freaking tragic. I literally cry every time I think about it. And if that wasn't enough, we then see Hurley completely lose it and start to sob, Kate is crying in the sand, and Jack is in tears and rage because he couldn't save them. Oh, we mourn too guys.

In the beginning, Jin and Sun were very flawed. Jin icily tells her to button up her blouse over and over again and doesn't let her talk to other men. Sun resents her husband for treating her like property, you can see the fire in her eyes even then. Through flashbacks we see that they fell in love when they weren't supposed to, she the daughter of a rich businessman/mobster, he a poor son of a fisherman. But they love each other, and that's enough. He asks her father for her hand and Mr. Paik offers him a "job". For years Jin acts as his father-in-law's hit man in order to stay with Sun. His job makes him almost frightening to Sun, more demanding. She's unhappy and strays into the man's arms who she was originally supposed to marry. He teachers her English, her father finds out and has Jin kill him, Jin doesn't go through with it (he doesn't know the guy's been sleeping with his wife) but he dies anyway. Sun prepares to leave her husband in Sydney before their flight back to LAX. However, just when she's supposed to make the decision to leave, she sees Jin with a flower and she realizes that she loves him, still. The plane crashes, they stay away from everyone at first, Jin is seen as hostile towards others and his wife. She reveals that she speaks English, Jin is pissed. He prepares to leave the island on the raft (that everyone knew wouldn't work), they reconcile somewhat before he leaves, the raft is ambushed, Jin ends up lost in the jungle. Eventually he finds his way back to her and their reunion is so sweet. They're in love, you see. They're happy and they get it on and we finally see Jin's sexy chest. Then Juliet tells Sun she's pregnant, they go to medical hatch to see who the daddy is (since Sun was cheating), Jin's the proud papa but it turns out Sun will die in childbirth since she got pregnant on the island. Jin is super happy until Juliet tells him that Sun slept with someone else (she was trying to stop Sun from staying on the island, she wanted her to get off and not die), Jin is pissed but realizes it was partly his fault for being such a jackass (what a man). Jin resolves to get Sun off the island and but gets himself on a freighter that blows up. Jin isn't dead as Sun thinks he is. She is hella angry and becomes Badass Sun and spends three years off the island trying to kill Ben because she blames him for Jin's death. Ben tells her Jin isn't dead and shows her Jin's wedding band. She then spends like, two freaking seasons getting back to the island and trying to get in the same effing time period as him. Then, FINALLY, last freaking week, they are reunited. Everyone smiles and is happy for like two seconds and then everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Jin sees his daughter for the first time on a roll of film, he finds out Ji Yeon is with Grandma Paik, and they both end up on the doomed sub of death.

AFTER ALL OF THAT, they die. As heart wrenching as it was, I have to say, their death was beautiful. Sun spent years thinking he was dead and raising their kid alone only to find out he wasn't dead in the first place. Jin spent three years alone on the island having never seen his daughter. They both frantically searched for one another for a whole freaking season. In the beginning, he was the worst kind of husband: pushy, rude, misogynistic. She was the oppressed housewife who couldn't stand up for herself. By all logic, they never should have been together in the first place. Yet, as fate would have it, they found each other. Against all odds, they loved each other, even when they couldn't stand each other. In the end, the only thing that mattered was that they were finally together. He would never leave her again. They never spoke of Ji Yeon but you could feel her presence and I think Jin did right by her. Instead of leaving his heart to die, he stayed and left his daughter a story she can be proud of. If she were to ever hear the story, she would know how much love her parents had for each other. And in the end, love was enough for them.

RIP Sun, Jin, and Sayid.

("Love You 'till the End" , The Pogues)

I Dreamed a Dream

"None of us are innocent."

Today, I was telling my Dad about all of the places I'm going to travel before I die. I was so excited in my storytelling that I didn't notice until later that he was laughing at me. Apparently, it is unacceptable for me to assume I'll be able to travel everywhere that I would like to. I, of course, was not amused with his "logic" and told him that his thinking was not supportive and that I would not be sending him any postcards from any of the places I had mentioned unless he changed his attitude between now and then.

For the record: I, Rebekah Jayne Andrews, being of sound mind and body, do hereby proclaim that I will travel everywhere that I've ever wanted to travel before I perish. So, there.

Later on in the day, I was reading my new book: Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting when my Dad walks in and asks me if I really spent money on such a book. Now, this book was written by Syd Field so I know it was legit. So, I say to my Dad, "How do you think I'm going to win an Oscar if I don't do the proper research?" To which, of course, he bursts out laughing.

I don't understand what is so funny about all of this. If I want to go see the freaking Great Wall of China or ride the blasted Chunnel, well then I will. And if I decide that I want to write a movie better than the poop Hollywood has been spewing out for years, then I will. If I decide for some ungodly reason that I want to become President, I'll be the freaking President! I wouldn't want to do that though because I'm a woman and I can't afford to age ten years in a week. No, thanks.

Attitudes like this are what is wrong with everyone. People think that it's ridiculous to dream, anymore! What the heck is up with that? Do these people not watch Disney movies? For crying out loud, what is the world coming to?

Yeah, I get the fact that it pretty much sucks pretty much everywhere. Every Saturday in South Africa, the whole country closes down because everyone is attending funerals all day of people who have died from AIDS. Mexican immigrants can't dare to hope for a better life because people in Arizona are going all Rambo on anyone who wants to come to America and do the jobs that our spoiled asses don't want to do. Pretty much, if you're a country that produces oil, you're S.O.L. And don't even get me started on all the shit India puts up with.

Maybe if everyone dreamed a little more or dared to hope and believe that one day good things would happen, maybe one day they actually would. If we all cared a little bit more about things like love, and hope, and honor, and doing the right thing, and friendship, and selflessness, and PEOPLE... well, maybe things wouldn't suck so bad.

So yeah, my spoiled American ass is daring to dream about travelling the world and writing a kickass screenplay and a world where the people in power give a crap about the little guy. Call it stupidity, call it naivety, call it whatever you want. But whenever it comes time for me to find a date for the Oscars, well let's just say I won't be choosing any naysayers or people who told me that I was "ridiculous". Your choice, bitches.

"My task . . . is to make you hear, to make you feel-- and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything." - Joseph Conrad

("I Dreamed a Dream", Les Miserables. Original Cast, not Susan Boyle. As much as I love Susan, there's more umph in the original.)