The final days of preparation for a Film Festival are like taking final exams...you cram all day and all night, nonstop; freak out for no apparent reason; drink coffee until you can feel the shakes under your skin; drink booze just to sleep at night; lose 10 pounds from stress and lack of food (bonus!); wake up from stress dreams at 3, 4 and 5 am (at which point you give up and just lay there making lists in your head remembering the 50 things you forgot to do the day before and won't have time to do today); and feel like those 10 days of the thing will help or hurt the rest of your life. Is my hair falling out? But the Festival has something finals don't...you aren't glad when it's over, you're glad when it starts. Those 10 days that you nearly kill yourself creating are the most exhilerating, rewarding, fun days of the year. Better than Christmas, better than you birthday, every sold out screening, every first time filmmaker, every volunteer, patron and student that tells you what an amazing time they had, make it all worth it. Now how will I get through the next week until Opening Night...