Isle of Remote

Has anyone written a screenplay before? It’s hard! And I just started mine two weeks ago. I want it completed by Saturday and polished in another week. Why? I’m entering it in the abc fellowship writing program. Yikes! I’ve never done something soooooo BIG before. And told people before it was done. Now I’m accountable - can’t just brush it off with no one the wiser. I’ve been telling everyone! Part of the “new” me - going forth boldly; ignoring the critics. Scary steps, you know? Anyway, I’m about 15 pages in of 40 or so. I’ve been doing so-so on sticking to a schedule. Monday it was supposed to be 4 pages a night, now I’m up to 5. Sunday is correction/re-write day and the whole of next week is fine tuning. I want to mail this out on the 9th. It’s due (postmarked) on the 16th. I WILL make this! Gossip - I just heard that Britney Spears may be pregnant and that’s why she’s planning a November wedding. That is one fertile dude she’s nabbed herself! He’s got two buns in two different ovens? Is it bad of me to think that when she finally does completely flip her lid it’s gonna be fun to watch? I mean she’s going to go all Anne Heche in the desert nuts. Just goes to show you, you can have all the money in the world and still be wacky and unhappy.

[i]There are two great moments in your life: The day you were born and the day you discover [b]why[/b] you were born.[/i] I first heard that quote spoken by Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell of Texas two years ago. It’s been bouncing around in my mind the last couple of days and I think it’s why I feel so unsettled with my life. I’ve let so many things slide - my health and weight, some of my relationships, my joy….all for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. And so yesterday, as I was moping in bed it occured to me that once you know why you were born, to do anything contrary to that is a drain and a source of unhappiness. I am 100% certain I was born to create. Create art, stories, friendships…. That is when I feel the most alive. That is when I feel most connected to the universe, to God, to others, to myself. And yet for 10 hours of my day I create nothing. I sit at a desk and crunch numbers and take phone calls and recreate exactly what I did the year before. I am living a lie. And the sad thing is that this is the norm. From childhood most of us are told to be practical and put our dreams aside. We can’t all be ballerinas and cowboys and so we grow up to be actuaries and accountants. Yet we still have that ballerina spirit, that cowboy adventure locked up in a small space of our hearts. We pacify it in small ways, attending concerts, watching sports, and convince ourselves that we are happy, that we are fulfilled. That we aren’t living half a life. An existence. And then we end up at age 60, retired without an inkling of what to do next. Or worse, that we’ve missed the boat and we can’t go back and reclaim our lost dreams. We let the fear of failure hold us back. We let the negative voices in our heads win. We let our own dreams be snuffed out by practicality. But it’s not failure if we are doing what we are meant to do! I don’t have to be principal dancer at the New York Ballet to be a ballerina! I just have to take classes! I don’t have to have a ranch to be a cowboy! I can teach horseback riding or take a vacation to a ranch! If I’m doing something purely for the love of doing it, because it was what I was meant to do, my level of success at it doesn’t matter! And ironically, my passion for what I’m doing directly affects my success! So today, June 28, 2004, I tell that negative voice in my head to shut the Hell up! I’m taking back my life and I’m not going to allow my complaints or my whining to guide me anymore. No more taking the easy comfortable carousel ride - I’ve got my e-tickets and I’m headed for the coaster, baby!
[b]Invictus[/b] Out of the night that covers me Black as the Pit from pole to pole I thank whatever gods maybe For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate How charged with punishment the scroll I am the Master of my fate I am the Captain of my soul.
— William Earnest Henley

So, my friend and I are playing what’s a pirates favorite (blank)? and having ourselves a good old time laughing it up when we start getting the looks and the sighs from the people at the next table over. My thing is if you want a nice quiet meal, go to a nice quiet restaurant, not a loud and crazy diner where the wait staff regularly breaks into song and/or dance and every teen queen this side of the Ole Miss wants to have her birthday party - but I’m funny that way. So we’re getting the passive-agressive treatment from the miserable couple sitting next to us and it’s making us laugh even harder. And then my friend says… oh wait, I guess I’d better ’splain first. What’s a Pirates Favorite is just that.
“Hey, what’s a pirates favorite movie?”
“I dunno, what?”
“Raiders of the Lost Arrrrrgh!”
“Hey, who’s a pirates favorite singer?”
“I dunno, who?”
“Arrrrrgh Kelly!”
As you can see the possibilities are endless. And, well, once you’ve had a couple of drinks, maybe it will seem funny to you. But to us it’s always funny. ‘Specially over voice mail. What’s a pirates favorite comic book? Arrrrrrchie!
Anyway, so my friend says ” What’s a pirates favorite cocktail?” I say, “I dunno, what?” She says, “appletini.”
And we both just busted up. But so does the guy in the booth behind us. His girlfriend is pissed, says she’s ready to go and gets up and leaves. He gives us a sort of cockeyed smile and follows.

Poor fella. Whipped by a joy-sucker before he’s thirty. I can think of no worse a fate.

I found my fifth grade class picture today. 1974 - looks like A Very Brady Grade School. What amazed me is that I remembered most of the kids’ names! This one girl, I remembered her name was Amy the minute I saw her, but I don’t remember one other darned thing about her. In my fifth grade handwriting, I had written “brat” next to her name! I wonder what happened to those kids? I know one of them is some kind of mortgage banker. And that Robin studied acting in college. Thirty years? Did we have imagination for what we would be doing thirty years out of elementary school? I know I thought I would be living the life of The Jetsons. Have me a robot maid, take vacation trips to Jupiter, have a job I could do by pushing a button and napping and have one of them cool flyin’ cars that I could pull right up to the window of my highrise home. At the very least we should have a flying car by now. Advances in modern medicine you say? Advances, shmavances I say! I want a friggin flyin car!

Jetson out!

Okay, so I had a bit of an epiphany the other night. I was gorging on this cherry coffee cake whilst eating lemon cookies and wondering what I was going to have for dinner when a voice came to me and said, “throw it away!” Even more astounding is that I did it. Good bye!

I woke up with such a migraine the next day I couldn’t get out of bed until after 1:00. I mean I hadn’t had a migraine that bad since….oh about 1992. I remember that one cuz I was at work and ended up on the floor in the bathroom with the lights out and moaning. So anyway, I was in bed and moaning, not for any good reason either, and thinking I’ve got to treat myself better. And it’s gonna take a major committment on my part.

So I am back on Fitday and I have plans to make it stick this time. I like fitday because it helps me keep track of how I’m eating and how I’m using my calories. I just sort of stopped when I stopped exercising - but even though I can’t really exercise right now, that doesn’t give me a license to go all hog wild.

I guess that’s part of the problem. I’ve always been able to lose weight with exercise and not have to monitor too closely what I eat. Now I get the chance to fix that problem and I have to look at it positively. So I am.

On another note, my sugar-induced semi-coma produced an interesting dream. Julie Andrews was critiquing my screenplay (I am writing one - but mum’s the word, ‘kay?) and she really liked it. And she was telling all the other people who submitted that theirs wasn’t as good as mine. She just couldn’t tell me enough how much she liked my dialogue. And how much she liked me now that we had finally met. In fact, Julie and I were so simpatico that we communicated telepathically.

Found a photo of my old college days. I had a theatrical makeup class that had us transforming ourselves once a week. I don’t remember what this assignment was, I do however remember that I copied Daryl Hannah’s makeup from Clan of The Cave Bear. I believe I got an A.

Now I’m wondering why her makeup was white. I mean, I sort of remember the story - she was the first of the clan to walk erect and they all thought that was bizarre and…did they kick her out of the tribe? I don’t remember. But she wanders around until she finds another tribe of homo erectus thus ensuring the survival of the fittest. Of course how’s a girl painted stark white gonna blend in with the surroundings. She would be kind of a walking billboard for any sort of predator….
Anyway, enjoy the photo of yours truly.

I thought the quiz was lame until it came up with the results I wanted

Faerie:
Faeries are sweet loving beings who love to help
people. They are not held back by reality and
love to dream and fly around. You probably are
very creative and although not the most popular
person in the world you are probably loved by
many for your sweet caring personality.

What Mythological Creature Are You (Many Results and Beautiful Pics)
brought to you by Quizilla

I got tired of the old color scheme and had to change it today. I still have to update the links and I think I’m getting rid of the calendar. I like the calendar itself, but I don’t like the links below. Tell me what you think!

I separated out the links on the left. My goal was to have a table of blog links and a table of other links just below it that I could one day categorize into something that made sense. Well, no matter what I did HTML-wise, I could not get the latter links to the top. Oy! Must be a tblog Pro feature, huh?

I’m excited about seeing Movin’ Out on Friday. I love Twyla Tharp’s choreograhy - think she’s our modern day Martha Graham.

It’s gonna be a busy week though - only tonight and tomorrow to take it easy. And I need to, since I’ve got some sort of funky allergy thing happening. Can you get a fever with an allergy attack? The Dr says it’s because of all the fires last year - that they’re seeing an increased number of respiratory ailments - and I’m just one of many!

It’s an attractive sight - the minute I go outside my eyes start running, my nose gets all stuffed up and I start coughing. Just call me Miss America!

My milkshake’s gotta bring boys to the yard. I gotta shake it fast and show you what you’re working with. I gotta shake my tailfeather, move it all around. I even have to shake it like a Polaroid picture! Shake it like this, shake it like that, shake it up, shake it
down…..
I’m 40 years old! I’m tired of shakin’ it! I’ve shook, shook, shook my booty for over 2 decades! When can I just let it settle?

Saw a play last night - [b]The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow[/b]. It was very good! I’ve been so lucky lately getting free tickets to the theater. In fact, I’ve been to the theater more times than the movies this year. Well, considering I see maybe 1 movie a year, I guess that’s not hard to do, but this year I’ve seen four movies

Anyway, the play was about an adopted Asian girl with OCD and agoraphobia. She’s a genius, proving aspects of robotic theory for her science fair project, but she can’t leave the house. Online she finds her birth mother in Korea and builds a robot to send to Korea so she can meet her mother. It sounds far-fetched and borderline goofy, but it really is well done.

Well, I gotta get going - there’s a party at work today and it’s not going to happen without me….

Here’s a site you need to visit for a laugh! Bad, bad Baby Names