Today was a fun day, miniature golf and racing at Malibu Gran Prix with my beau, Lady Lunesse and her hubbie. There was Thai food in Redwood City and a soak in their hot tub. But I'm preoccupied by something else.

In 1995, there were quite a few articles about Jessica Kaplan. I was in my first year of college and several people mailed me stories about her from different publications. Jessica was one year younger than me. We'd gone to the same high school (Crossroads). We'd been in the same film classes. But Jessica had sold a film script for $150,000 while still in high school. She was the youngest person to ever get a six-figure script salary. And for a few minutes, I though that could have been me.

I studied film. It ended up being my major in college. I wrote a short script while in high school, albeit an adaptation of someone else's short story. I don't know that I would be a great script writer, but I was there, with the same opportunities she had. That could have been me.

I've wondered since then what became of her script. I've just bothered to find out. Her script for 'Powers That Be' was sold to "New Line Cinema (with Michael Stipe's Single Cell Pictures attached to produce it at the time). They eventually put the project into turnaround, and MDP Worldwide picked it up in 2002 as 'Havoc'.... Stephen Gaghan was hired to do a rewrite of Kaplan's script while this project was still in development at New Line Cinema (which at the time was his first feature screenwriting job)." [source]

This morning, my mother called me and said that one of my classmates had died. A plane crashed into an apartment building in Santa Monica killing someone named Kaplan. I knew it was Jessica. I felt odd. The though reoccurred. That could have been me.

Would I have been flying on a little private plane this week if I had started earning six figures in high school? Could that have been me? What was I to think of my envy now?

I don't watch or read or listen to the news. The only way I learn of events is if someone tells me about them. This is my method of sparing myself from the tradgedy that occurs at all times. So I might not have know about this story. But I found out twice.

This evening I talked to the director of the film I have finally finished editing. She let me know that one of the actresses in the film lived in the apartment building that was crashed into. She wasn't home but her husband was and he has third degree burns.

Having two personal connections to one incident is a little too much for me. I don't believe in signs. But I cannot ignore what happened. It is too real and too close. My prayers are with everyone who was hurt by this event.