I'm Moving On...

Well, I guess the time has come to officially announce that I am leaving Colorado.  A while back I began perusing the career websites, just to see what else was out there in my field.  I happened to find an amazing opportunity in a place that I have visited over the years but never thought I'd actually live - well, except for that one time, in high school, when my parents thought they would run a bed & breakfast, and I was going to follow them and go to college there, until my mom realized just how much work that would be before getting several cups of coffee in her system and I took a 6 month sabbatical that turned into 6 years...but I digress.

I'm moving to Roanoke, Virginia at the beginning of next month.  I will be working for Carilion Clinic, working in the area of research compliance, something I never thought about until I started doing it, but something I have a real passion for and consider a true niche.

Finally heading over the rainbow

I'm very excited for the opportunity but know it will be a challenge. And yes, I have come to the conclusion that my current hair "style" of washing and letting it air dry days are numbered.

I will miss everyone I've come to know while a mile high A LOT, but am for once thankful that we live in an age where social media is a more likely hang out spot than the local restaurant and will stay in touch. And I'm lucky enough to have these cutie patooties joining me in a little bit:

I mean my parents, not Max. At least not yet. But if my plan to move everyone I love to Roanoke happens, then bwahaha, Max will be there too. And it will be awesome.

But until then, please come visit me in the Star City. I'll be sure to show you some true Southern hospitality. I can already guarantee I'll pick up the accent.

Do better

Back in the day when my world revolved around the gospel according to Oprah, there was a saying she often quoted from Maya Angelou.  The story goes that when Oprah was visiting Maya for the first time and telling her stories about the mistakes she had made when she was in her twenties, Maya responded that she did those things when she was in her twenties, when she didn't know any better. Now she was in her thirties and when you know better, you can do better.
Those words struck a chord with me.  As someone who often beats myself up for things I've done in the past, I found great comfort in the idea that those mistakes were okay. Those mistakes don't define me.  Those mistakes are not my future.  I can do better.

My Obsession with Speech, Baby, Bump.

I spend a lot of time rambling through YouTube these days.  It is one of those sites that you can witness the whole spectrum of the world wide web that not only did you not know even existed, but that is extremely popular in a way that seemed unfathomable not that long ago.  I mean, did you ever think you could spend an entire evening watching hilarious cat videos? Gives a whole new meaning to "crazy cat lady" - now you don't even have your own, you can be a super secret cat fanatic of virtual felines. Scary thought.

Anyhoo...I never really knew about vloggers, or video bloggers, before stumbling across a hilarious review of something on YouTube, which made me curious about that person's other videos, which then led me to watch videos from their friends, and before I knew it, there was an entirely new time sucker-upper which I certainly do not need, but enjoy nonetheless. One of my favorite vloggers is Carrie Hope Fletcher (https://www.youtube.com/user/ItsWayPastMyBedTime) , a seemingly sweet "unknown" who liked to talk about her love of books and cakes, at least that is what I thought when I began binge watching her videos.  Part of the YouTube experience is that the sidebar has these handy "recommended" videos for you. After watching one of Carrie's videos, I noticed one of these recommendations was a video called "My Wedding Speech" in which the groom sang a delightful song to his wedding party and left me in complete awe.  Little did I know that the groom was Tom Fletcher, Carrie's big brother, and a member of a popular band from England.
It's such a strange thing to realize the smallness of the world sometimes. I went from having no idea who any of these people were, to finding delight in being able to witness their joyful life celebrations.  Now maybe this is a really long post just to say that I find this couple completely adorable, but I've been meaning to share it with others for a while now. Because that is the true joy of this small interconnected world in which we live; finding a bit of your own happiness by sharing in the happiness of others. Isn't it? And if my own recommendation doesn't cut it for you, maybe you'll listen to someone I never thought I'd have a lot in common with and yet, he manages to sum up my feelings for the Fletcher family pretty perfectly.     

Drinking Whiskey When It Should Be Wine...

A Very Firthy Year

Well, 2011 has come and gone.  With it goes a long list of goals made in the frosty hope filled wonder of January last year.  A list that I just happened to glance at this last week to find that while I did amazingly accomplish some things, most fell by the wayside as they were not given more than a fleeting thought 12 months ago.  It can be a little diminishing to the fresh New Year hopes when you see how similarly you felt last year and then think of how easily you just gave up. 


Not that the whole year was a loss.  Actually 2011 was not too shabby.  I worked too much, played too little, and procrastinated just as often.  But I did begin and end my year with Colin Firth, and when can that be considered a bad thing?

In February I was lucky enough to attend Oprah's Oscar After Party in L.A.  I decided a few years ago that I would not land at LAX until I was going for a film industry meeting. I did have an exception if my request for red carpet bleacher seats was ever granted, but so far I'm 0-3 in that race. However, on a whim I signed up for Oprah's show and was first turned down.  But then I received a second chance invitation. Crazy, expensive, and so not worth it for most people, I never hesitated. I was in. Luckily I have a fantastic mom who is willing to accompany me on my strange adventures.  I'm not sure it was the trip of a lifetime for her, but there was a moment, sitting in the Kodak theater a mere 12 hours after the Academy Awards, when I could have died very very happy.

The King's Speech was a fantastic movie, my pick for Best Picture, so it was just icing on the cake when it was such a clear audience favorite that even the screenwriter, David Seidler, was present in the audience.  Such a beautiful sound, hearing all those fans cheer for the writer of a film.

I wish I could say I used my renewed desire for screenwriting to finish a screenplay this year. Instead, I have a little more than a handful of pages of a very rough draft.  But I resolve to do better this year and you never know, maybe someday I'll be back at the Kodak.  

Until then, I will enjoy the Christmas presents I received from my siblings -- a Blu-Ray of the film that began my year...

and a very covetable mug ...

Even if I come to think of this Darcy ahead of Firth's,

I would settle for a Mark Darcy kind of 2012, especially as like Bridget in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, I truly believe that happiness is possible... even when you're thirty-three and have a bottom the size of two bowling balls.

If it wasn't too late, I'd try...

 Acting and Directing, preferably not at the same time.

 Hanging out in outerspace...

 Being a fantastic cook...

 Living abroad for at least 6 months...

 Forensic pathology...

 Professional writing (okay, really, any writing would be good right about now)...

 Being in a band that gets to perform at cool venues like this...

 Speaking another language, like Italian, fluently...

 Putting my teaching concentration to use...

September 12th.

'That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different its course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a long moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on that memorable day.' -- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations




So begins the book One Day by David Nicholls, now a feature film I still want to see. Problem is, I always want to read the book before seeing the movie, and I've been a bit busy lately. So I started reading this when the movie was already out in theaters...and not receiving the best of reviews. Still, I found it somewhat serendipitous that I started reading this today; a book looking into the relationship between two people on one given day over twenty years.

The notion intrigued me because I have always had a strange connection with random days, days that to anyone else would be forgotten dates on a calendar, but that stick with me and remind me of where I was on that day however many moons ago when the day became infamous and ingrained in my mind.

I previously wrote about my acknowledgement of May 23rd, the date I graduated high school, but there are different dates that hold private memories in my soul, dates that normally go unnoticed to others, but receive some notice from me. Usually these are dates that were not chosen by me, but by the events that occur to make it memorable. I blushingly confess that more than once I have tried to make events occur on a certain day so that I could remember an anniversary on a date I like. Yes, I like the number 13, but even I know now that postponing a relationship for it to begin on that day is just asking for failure. Afterall, as Harry told Sally, "...when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to begin as soon as possible."





The past week has found me pretty emotional, crying at the most random things at the drop of a hat. I thought maybe the stress of a busy schedule was getting to me, ignoring the obvious answer right in front of me; September 11th. I couldn't fathom why the 10th anniversary of something was harder for me to handle than the previous years, but that seems to be the case. I wanted to write about it, to maybe work out what was happening in my head, but found it heartbreaking. The whole weekend was numbing. I came to the conclusion, that while I have had some horrible things happen to me personally in my life, events that should qualify as the worst day of my life, they still didn't compare to this date when nothing happened to me specifically, but still managed to change every aspect of my life as I had previously known it.

When reminiscing about life 10 years ago, I was reminded of something else, perhaps my saving grace, the event that happened after my world came tumbling down. On September 12th, 2001 I attended my first workshop for Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.

Unsure whether class was still going to happen, my mom and I showed up in the basement of a church to find another group of people full of uncertainty. When the teacher shared her same doubts, she stated that her decision to continue the workshop as originally planned was due to the feeling that maybe now, more than ever, was when we needed to focus on living our most authentic and creative lives. We all agreed and thus began 12 weeks that changed the course of my life for the better.

I have tried to recreate the growth I felt during that first class a few times and usually start with gusto that fades before the 3 months are over. When visiting my mom in Pueblo in July, I went with her to the Friends of the Library bookstore where I found the follow-up book to The Artist's Way, Walking in This World. I happily purchased it, thinking it would be a great way to get me back into the swing of things, to jumpstart my creativity that has been stagnant for far too long. It was still sitting on the table next to my chair today, unopened and unexplored.

Shame and guilt kept me from cracking it open today, instead I googled The Artist's Way. And what did I unfold but Julia Cameron's new blog classroom! http://juliacameronlive.com/2011/09/12/and-so-we-begin/

Serendipitous, no? I felt that stirring in the very bottom of my soul that occurs when I feel like something is aligning between me and the universe, nothing I can name, but something I know I need.

This little task may be just the thing to get me back to where I need to be, to the person who held onto the discovering of my creativity like my life depended upon it. Because the truth is, it does.