crazy!

Crazy last night at the Alamo. I love stupid improv humor and I love making fun of movies that meant so much to me once. I could never go to a roast of Wings of Desire, but Breakfast Club...why not? I'd forgotten the Emilio Estevez dance/gymnastics scene and somehow I remembered that there was a real make out scene, but there isn't, it's just some post makeout kissing...strange...

I've been knee deep in Roadside editing.
I am loving hanging out at ASF. The people are nice and I love working somewhere besides my own little office. I like the activity, the bits of conversation and noise and the feel of good work being done around me. Also, it's less lonesome.

It's good to be back in my groove at Trinity.
On Wednesday, I met Norbert, 2 1/2 years old who would not let me go after I snuck him some animal crackers and apple juice. He is a gorgeous child, big blue eyes and a buzz cut that shows off his crazy cowlick. He's strong, too and he loves the animal crackers, but offered one to everyone he met. I love having a friend named Norbert.
Lionel moves into his own place in about two weeks. If you have any household items in good condition that you don't need any more, Lionel could give them a great home. I'll store things until he moves in.

Today more editing, perhaps a movie, but more likely an evening of catchup, which actually feels really good right now.

Trip pictures will be up Sunday morning so you can enjoy them with your coffee...

Stop by McSweeney's Sale....

McSweeney's is having a sale to recoup losses from their distributor who field for bankruptcy. Subscriptions are $5 off, and most books are super cheap.
Like indie film distribution, indie book/text publishing and distribution has been in a bit of a spin lately. More here.

tuesday tuesday....

Busy week and it's only Tuesday.
I've been sort of turning my house upside down and shaking it a bit. It's true. Things have been falling around me and I'm giving things away, selling things, having less stuff around me feels right.

One goal I have is to live simpler in a prettier space. So I've been painting, cleaning, rearranging. It's fun.

Another goal is to work hard at work, but not at things that aren't work. I've been a famous hardworker all my life and it's been rewarding. I've had some amazing jobs and projects. I want to keep that work ethic in the work world. As for writing, love, homelife, family life, friends, ideas, running, I just want to do them. I don't want to work at them.

In other news:
Roadside is ambling down the highway.
We had our first writer's group meeting last night. Craig posted pictures.
He's faster than I. I just got my pictures from the trip and am busily loading them up on google...should be one more day.
Funny, I also found pictures of Ryan and Karen, Maddie and Dani, and Ace that I'd forgotten about. I'll post them as well.

I will be sleeping in my brand new room tonight. I can't wait!

Monday monday....

I have some pictures from the trip that I'll put up on my gmail flicker account soon.

I heard from Annalise today. She's up in Maine teaching guitar and lifegaurding at a summer camp. She told me that most of the counselors already know each other, but she's working her way into "the family."

Last night they had a camp fire and played their guitars and somehow one of them convinced her to play and sing one of her own songs. So she did. She told me she sang quietly, more so than usual, it was scary after all. When she was done, they told her they wanted to hear more, they told her she should teach songwriting and they told her they really like her voice and her words. I tell her this all the time, but hearing it from your peers is more of a validation, and I completely understand that.

Here in Texas, I'm thinking of her up in Maine singing her songs around a campfire and I know I must have done something right in some former life.

Maybe having a child when I was a bit young and uncertain put a little hold on my own creative pursuits, but there is plenty of time left and don't take this wrong, but being a parent is a creative process all it's own.

Today I'm finishing painting. As I paint, I've been listening to the mix CDs Annalise made me before she left. I open the windows, turn up the little boombox and paint. I'm a very messy painter, but it's okay, because I'm good with clean up. I have a new deadline looming and work ahead, so today it's nice to paint and watch the room change.

william butler yeats

Happy Birthday to Willam Butler Yeats


The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

the vagabond settles back in...

Since we returned, Annalise and I have both been diving back into our lives, catching up, doing laundry, working, running, taming the yard.

I've had some quality time with the dogs, who were all quite stressed. The cats apparently told them we were never coming back and there would be no more fresh bags of dog food. We've almost worked through that.

I have loads of pictures to scan and print and I have decided I want to work on my backyard a bit. I was inspired by the gardens I walked through in France and while I have no ambitions to create the Jardins de Plantes in the backyard, I would like to do a little planting.

I have some new work, and more importantly I have some work I'm completing and I'm able to do so with my brand new attitude. Roadside USA is coming along very nicely. I have some new script ideas. I'll be working on the new project that Kat's been blogging about, which is very exciting. There are new avenues to explore right here in Austin.

I don't feel like I"m back yet, though I'm here, driving my car, talking to friends and neighbors, part of me is still sort of somewhere else and that's just fine with me. I decided I want to be more a vagabond in my everyday life. Take things less seriously, expect the unexpected, toss away the guidebook and remain curious.

huh...

I stepped on the scale this morning to see how much weight I gained while traveling and discovered that I lost three pounds. This was not the plan and I am a bit stunned. I ate my way around France, with a croissant, usually chocolate, for breakfast every day. For lunch we had fresh baguettes with cheese, usually cabecou a delicious creamy goat cheese that I discovered in Sarlat, or cheese that was layered with walnuts, and sometimes I'd have a chocolate croissant with my lunch. One day in the middle of the afternoon, I had hot chocolate because a friend who had lived in Paris for a year told me this cafe had the best hot chocolate in the world. It came in a little white pitcher, creamy and warm and I finished the whole thing, I savored every drop. Our last day in Paris, we went to the same ice cream place twice because it was good.
We did a lot of walking some biking, some running, but we did a lot of eating, too and we did not turn down dessert or avoid fatty meals. We did take some time with our meals, the restaurants in France do not rush you. They want you to enjoy your food, stay awhile, enjoy each bite. Then, I found this.

home

Arrived home late last night to happy pets and a dirty house. Almost spent the night in Boston, but a kind United ticket agent took pity on us and found us a way home. (Thank you Nikki!) Kat and Mark picked us up way past Kat's bedtime. Stayed up late tidying up and then woke early. Met Kat for an early catch up meeting, bought groceries, tidied up some more, communed with the pets, sorted mail and got to thinking about our adventure of the last two weeks. Today, I was thinking about landing in Paris and our time in Normandy and remembered some favorite moments:

• The look on Annalise's face when we arrived in Paris.
  
• Picking up the rental car and getting stuck in the lot while we read the manual and figured out how to get it in reverse from the drawings. Backing up and driving away feeling victorious.
• Driving out to Giverny to see Monet's garden and discovering irises in shades of copper and bright blue and the deepest purple I've seen, just on the edge of black and luscious poppies of all shades, and the pool of waterlilies or "nympheas".
  
• Continuing on to Briqueback, but getting turned around and stopping in at a little cafe to get directions and ordered a sandwich at the counter. We forgot that holding up your first finger means "2" in Europe, (they start counting with the thumb) so he brought out two, but when he realized from our expression that we just wanted one, he insisted on us taking both and charged us for only one even though I tried to pay him for both. We met kind people like him all over the country and we got much better at ordering.
  
• Arriving in Normandy, where the roads are narrow and the cows are fenced in by hedgerows. (We later learned that hedgerows are strong enough to stop Sherman tanks.)
  
• Staying at La Lande, our B&B in Bricquebec, a farmhouse turned into a cozy home full of books. The hosts are British and all of the guests except for us, were too. We had some great discussions over breakfast and dinner. Speaking of dinner, the food was amazing, starting with salad or soup, then a main course, followed by an assortment of cheeses, followed by dessert. Good wine throughout the meal.
  
• Touring the D-Day beaches with Ted, our B&B host and a historian. Seeing the remains of the barges brought over from Britain for the attack and realizing what an amazing, crafty, serious plan the allies had. Stepping into a German tank bunker, seeing the fields, still marked from the bombs, now covered in crops of hay.
  
• Driving the narrow country lanes with Ted and learning how the tanks struggled with the hedgerows and the paratroopers with the flooded fields. Walking the beaches of Omaha and Utah, and coming away with a new understanding of the difficulties that the 82nd and 101st Divisions met when dropped onto thousands of German soldiers. I didn't realize that the Nazi's were having an "invasion exercise" when the Americans arrived, losing our advantage of surprise. Most of the tanks sank, and the boys just kept coming to the beach, though they had to know the odds were terrible. I began to understand more of the brave, patriotism of that day.
  
• Visiting Sainte Mere Eglise, the first town liberated by the American Paratroopers, the "82nd Airborne". The story of the town is told in the movie, "The Longest Day", when John Steele's parachute catches on the church steeple, where he hangs, and is eventually captured, then rescued. He became a town hero after the war and his family still visits the town on D-Day.
  
• Visiting the American cemetery. The graves are arranged in no particular order, generals next to privates, names from every state of the union mixed in with the unknowns, over 6,000 clean white markers, some with crosses some with the star of David. Immaculate grounds, fresh flowers, men with WWII caps and medals on their jackets.
  
  
  
• Visiting the German cemetery. There are 6 names on each marker, the bodies of 6 boys in each grave and over 10,000 Nazi's are buried here. No fresh flowers, simple, unkempt grounds. Remembering that all the WWII soldiers were just boys and young men, even the Nazis and as Ted said, "they all had mums." Proudly remembering the time Ronald Reagan came here, despite criticism from Americans of both parties, because he wanted to recognize the total cost of war.
  
• Hearing stories I'd never read in history books: The paratrooper who took back a German stronghold all by himself and visiting the tiny, simple old church where it all happened. An article from the Birmingham newspaper tells the story of the soldier and how he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The brave French resistance efforts. The French villages who were torn between reistance efforts and the presence of the Nazi soldiers.
  
• When Ted pulled out three silver forks and a silver bowl with the initials AH that his father, a WWII photographer picked up from the remains of Hitler's bunker.
  
• Visiting the town of Bayeux, wandering into a shop and down the stairs to the basement annex that was built in the 13th century.
  
• Going for a run on the last rainy morning in Normandy, hearing the sheep baa-ing as I ran past, seeing a mare and colt, the fresh air, the wildflowers.
  
• Driving around the little towns and country roads with Annalise, being amazed at what a good navigator she is and what a great travel team we are. Talking a lot and telling each other stories, relaxing and having fun with each other.