On Pins and Needles

The premiere last night of my son's third movie Cold Weather at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas has kept me on pins and needles for days. Yesterday, I counted down the hours to the 5 pm (7 pm in Austin) show time somehow thinking my nervousness would disappear as soon as I imagined the lights went out and the movie appeared on the screen. Not so. What if no one came? What if the eight or ten people in the theatre hated it? What if the projector or the tape didn't work? What if . . . ? The tortured wonderings of the Mom sitting here more than 2,000 miles from the thick of things.

No word about the success or failure came before bed last night. My half awake, half asleep dreams were full of crazy images. As soon as the sky started to turn pink this morning, I rushed to the computer to see if there was any word. At first nothing except old news. I filled my time with making pancakes and reading the morning paper.

Then about 9:30 am a new search led me to a review by LA Weekly critic Karina Longworth. The first words that appeared on the screen were "Cold Weather - The first unqualified hit of 2010 SXSW Film Festival premiered last night to a packed crowd at Austin's Alamo Ritz." I ran around the house looking for Gary shouting "It's a hit, it's a hit." 

I spent the afternoon scanning the Internet for more reviews (there are several). My aunt called from Los Angeles to tell me she just stumbled onto a interview with Aaron in her Sunday LA Times. I've sent emails out to friends and family members with links to the reviews. My daughter called to tell me about an "I'm excited!" text she received from Aaron. Now I'm on pins and needles again wondering what happens next.