Adventures with Geoffrey Gilmore [Part 2 of 5]

This is part two of a five part adventure that involves Geoffrey Gilmore, the Director of the Sundance Film Festival, driving around Tallahassee, Diet Cokes, private jets, The Visitor, tea, a 4 am flight, and of course, coffee. Part one.

For the mode of transportation, the school decided to rent an SUV. This proved to be a bit of a problem, as I’m only 20, meaning I can’t drink, gamble, or rent cars. Since this was a government contract, there’s more leeway with age, but not enough to let me drive a luxury class SUV (even though I can drive a semi-large grip truck). We settled on a Dodge Grand Caravan, slapped a Film School tag on the front, and headed off to the airport.

While driving, I gave Paul my phone number. He fell in love with it’s simplicity. It’s a 1000 number, and with the area code included, there’s only four different digits. It kind of rolls of your tongue. ((I doubt there’s any 1000 numbers left. Though it might be a good idea to get an LA number if you move there, this number is staying with me for life. The only downside is it’s extremely similar to the Miami-Dade County Public School’s number, so I do get a lot of wrong calls. I’ve yet to use this to my amusement.))

With me to meet Geoffrey was the Dean, Paul, and their wives. To me, meeting Geoffrey didn’t go off as well as I hoped. I waited by arrivals as everyone went inside. I decided I would get out and help with the bags when they came out the door, and do the meet and greet curbside.

This plan was foiled when they came out another door and had to wave me down to pull the car forward. I didn’t get out, Geoffrey got in the back and our introduction was one of those awkward wave over the shoulder, “Hey, I’m a film student,” things.

I drove everyone to Mozaik, a posh restaurant for Tallahassee, as you can tell by its spelling. Yet it still manages to find itself in a strip mall. To occupy myself, I went to the Starbucks in an opposing strip mall, but again, since this is Tallahassee, they closed within ten minutes of my arrival. I went back to the Mozaik parking lot and caught up with the Sunday NY Times (I also had a copy or two of Cubicles in my bag, you know, just in case).

Once dinner was done, I drove Geoffrey to the Governors Inn, one of the nice downtown hotels geared more towards Senators than parents, where the likes of Burt Reynolds have stayed.

I gave Geoffrey one of my Moo cards. They always seem to be a hit, except in this case he said it was a bit too small for him to read. Paul asked if I had Geoffrey’s number. I didn’t. “Joey D, you always have to get the big guy’s number.” So I did.