I arrived in sunny Sarasota yesterday at noon, only to be met by my smiling, beautiful girlfriend. Last year around this time, I was flying down here for the sole purpose of screening Silver Jew at the Sarasota Film Festival. This year, however, I have a much greater, more inexpressibly lovely purpose. I don't know what I did to deserve such a dreamy, perfect girlfriend, but I will take it.

It's funny. Up until six months ago, I retained my staunch, stubborn belief that the only way to fall in love was for it to be at first sight. I didn't believe people who said they had been friends with their mate for quite some time before deeper feelings blossomed. I thought that was flat-out impossible, and in a sadder sense, believed it was somehow correlated to an admission of defeat in the quest to find true, burning, magical love. But now, thinking back to how we looked at each other one year ago versus how we look at each other now, I have to confess: I was wrong. For the truth is that this love is infinitely healthier, stronger, and truer than anything I could have ever imagined.

As recently as a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to embrace and appreciate a situation such as this. I would have fucked it up somehow. But for once in my life, the timing feels absolutely right. I will always continue to be an insecure, afraid, and nervous little boy, but I am also of an age where I am able to dismiss those worried thoughts and feelings and not let them interfere with the glorious reality that has shown up at my front door like the most amazing UPS shipment ever.

I know how gay (in a playground sense) all of this sounds, and it is. So I'll leave it at that. But I did want to give one last shout-out to the evil emperor they call Long Distance Love. Hey, L.D.L., guess what? We beat you, you sorry son of a bitch. Suck it 'til the sun don't shine!

***And now Boredom at Its Boredest will return to its regular cinematic roots. This year's Sarasota line-up is particularly strong, and I have already begun some pre-festival screening, so I hope to provide daily content between here and Hammer to Nail that will give you some cinema-centric edutainment as opposed to more corny and embarrassing personal disclosures that should be saved for my bedside journal. Sorry about this, but if you were feeling like I'm feeling you'd be proud of me for not writing posts like this every single day.***