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.

"So this is Christmas...

and what have you done?" John Lennon's Happy Christmas (War is Over) has been playing a lot lately...well, it is the season, so nothing really unusual about that. Though I don't normally come in on Christmas songs at the beginning, and for some reason this year I have heard the first two lines of this song over and over again. As if someone was trying to tell me something.



What have I done? Nothing out of my ordinary procrastinating world. I have been jobless for months and still was rushing to get my presents ready for Christmas. Truth be told, I still have some presents to make. Yes, not wrap or throw into a bag, but make. I always say "next year will be different!" But it never is. Maybe if I keep these song lyrics in mind, it might make me more ambitious to have an answer next Christmas. Maybe.



This year will be a first -- presents and family on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas. Everyone was somehow concerned about me handling this. As if I was really upset by the date on the calendar. Really my only concern was getting presents finished on time. Christmas was Christmas, regardless of whether it was filled with packages and bows. Hey if the Grinch can learn that lesson, how hard is it for me to as well?








And I did get to enjoy two of my favorite things on Christmas: going to the movies and sesame chicken. And having Chinese for Christmas dinner was very theatrical a la A Christmas Story, though I'm glad my dinner was not smiling at me.

Christmas was different in another way as well, in that my mind was elsewhere most of the time. My best friend Amy, a steady fixture for 20 of my 30 years, had a nephew born on the 23rd with serious issues, the biggest being that he didn't breathe for the first 13 minutes of his life. While I've had plenty of tragedies in Christmases past -- I've lost two grandparents and an uncle at this particular holiday -- I've never had one like this, where someone just beginning their life may be leaving it soon.

Suddenly the search for the perfect gift seems like the frivolity it is. Thinking of the celebration of a baby born so many years ago while praying for one born days ago brings up all sorts of emotions and thoughts that I haven't had time to fully process yet. All I know is that gratitude and hope seem to be the biggest gifts to give and receive this year, and I feel very lucky to have both.