Gratitude is the sign of noble souls ~ Aesop


Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving ~ Kahlil Gabran


Joy delights in joy ~ William Shakespeare


Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Quack quack waddle waddle

I was running late for a meeting today, cursing the fact that I had to park in the big structure and walk clear to the other side of the giant studio lot in my high heels, and regretting that I had worn a sweater on such a hot day, when suddenly I heard a rustling in the bushes to my right and then, before my quite startled eyes -- a young duck popped out and waddled right in front of me like he was merging into traffic. And before I could process whether or not I was having a heat stroke induced hallucination -- another little duck popped out of the bushes and four more after that! Six ducks appearing like some crazy magic trick, all in a line, and not one of them concerned that I was clicking along in my shiny shoes just a half a foot behind them. They owned the road...a pack of teenage ducks (they had no mom with them and seemed a little older than chicks) just out for an afternoon joy waddle. I laughed out loud and the completely unexpected display of cuteness and nature in the concrete studio lot...and being late or hot or having to walk so far suddenly didn't matter to me. I stopped and took a few pictures and discovered the ducks even had their own crossing guard. Somehow their parents and grandparents had decided to make the giant Hollywood fountain in the middle of the lot one of their migratory stops, melting the hearts of even the cold movie studio execs who went so far as to replace the water in the fountain with natural unchlorinated water for them to swim in.
So if you're having a bad day or feeling hot and grumpy, be on the lookout, your ducks might be right around the next bush:)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Bloom

I'm thankful that we were able to save our dying angel trumpet tree and it is so happy in it's new spot in the garden that we moved it to that it is trumpeting with joy -- dozens of huge pink and white bells just bursting with sweet fragrance like a beautiful melody. And to think we almost gave up on it when all it needed was a change of scenery and some TLC. I remember a sign we had in our house that used to say "Bloom where you're planted" but I think I've learned from my little tree that if you don't bloom where you're panted, then maybe you should move and bloom where you're happy...:)

Monday, June 28, 2010

Fade Out

Today I finished writing a script with my wife. The characters, the dialogue, the dumb prat falls... they all came out of our brains. AND IT'S DANG GOOD!

Here's to our first of many collaborations :)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Xanadu

Roller skating until 2 in the morning! :) Boy do my feet hurt, but it was worth it. Wind in my hair, feeling twelve again...so fun.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Insomnia

It's 1:30 am and for some reason my sleep schedule has been all over the place this week...so I'm thankful for a job that mostly allows for the days when I sleep from 3 until 10. And I have been getting a lot of reading done which is easier to do in the still of the night than in the noisy day. I'm excited tonight because there's supposed to be a spectacular lunar event in a couple of hours so I can't wait to see that! How cool it is to be treated to spectacular shows by nature every now and then:)

Friday, June 25, 2010

Baal Perazim

I had a small breakthrough today on a story I was having trouble cracking -- and it felt good. It's so interesting how it's always hardest right before a breakthrough...like you've pushed until you can't push any more and something, or more accurately someone, comes behind you and gives you that extra shove. It's a frustrating place to be at the edge of a breakthrough...I've felt it many times in my health, in my career, in my relationships -- and I suppose that's what makes the breakthrough that much sweeter. Like taking a clean clear breath of air after having been underwater for too long. There was an ancient Hebrew term I've always loved, "Baal Perazim" that is roughly translated to mean "The God of Breaking Through" and when I'm up against a rocky place I always like to hold it in my heart and I know He will. Plus it's fun to say. And I'm thankful that Ryan keeps me from screaming like a crazy person and banging my head repeatedly against the wall while I wait:) Patience isn't exactly my best quality.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

They sort of like me, they really sort of like me!

I read a review for a movie today. A movie I wrote. My very own review...in Variety, a Hollywood institution. And while it wasn't a glowing review, it wasn't a scathing one either. And I had my feelings hurt over a line or two...but then it hit me...this reviewer is writing an article because HE SAW A MOVIE THAT I WROTE. And the fact that I have a movie out there for people to see and review, to not like, and, hopefully, to like -- is just about the coolest thing ever:) And so I'm thankful for a little taste of fruit after a very long season of sowing and growing.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Keep walking

I had to walk my two incorrigible dogs today, each of them pulling in two opposite directions like some kind of medieval torture device, then wrapping around my legs, trying their best to trip me the whole way. Add to that my allergies flaring up and the fact that I only had one poop bag for two animals and well, I was pretty exasperated. I was tired and wished I'd never gone on the dumb walk in the first place. And that's when something neat happened. As I started to turn back towards my house, I heard a voice deep inside me say "Keep walking." So instead of retreating home, I decided to keep walking around another block. And then another. And then I thought that maybe I was supposed to keep walking because I was going to see something amazing ...and I did see a pretty cool cactus flower about the size of an outspread hand. Which was more nice than amazing. I also saw a taco bell coke cup, lid and straw that had obviously been thrown out a window and was now strewn across a nice lawn. So I thought about how my mom would say "leave a place nicer than how you found it" and I picked up the trash and then I saw a recycling bin and thought of how my hubby loves to recycle, so I threw it in. And it made me feel good. Such a small thing and somehow it turned my bad mood right around. I've never thought of garbage as amazing before, but in that moment it was. That old grumpiness just couldn't keep up with me on such a long walk, and it was nice to leave him in the dust.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The world is full of wonders

I am thankful for a migraine free day today. And for my kindred spirit sister friend Lindsay's birthday:) What a beautiful day at Ocean park it was with the blooming roses and the magnolias scenting the air and the ocean sparkling and blue for as far as you could see and Lindsay and I trying to change her friend's baby's diaper and laughing ourselves silly...how many blondes does it take...:) I loved the card I gave her with Pigglet pointing out a snail to Pooh saying "The world is full of wonders!" It is indeed.

My husband

Takes good care of me, and I'm forever grateful for that:)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Good Stuff

No migraine today! Hooray! And that is something to be very thankful for:) I'm also thankful for all of the new fragrant blooms on my gardenia outside my office...makes me think of the south and of my mom's wedding bouquet so it makes me extra happy. I'm also thankful that my beautiful Corita art has finally come home from the framing store and looks like joy incarnate up on my wall...talk about inspiring!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Za!

Pizza crust, BBQ sauce, carmelized onions, mushrooms, smoked gouda, mozzarella. A BBQ Chicken pizza minus the chicken -- a California perfection!

Shhh

I had a headache today, so on the way home from a meeting this afternoon, I actually turned off my car radio for the whole drive home. And that silence was just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy it. The silence was extra luxurious today because my mind was actually pretty quiet too, which is a rarity -- it's usually something of a chatty parrot squawking for attention. But today somehow the pain crowded out the words and then in the silence, the quietness crowded out the pain, and before I knew it I was home.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

That Moon

I haven't communed with the moon
in much too long
so tonight I sit and listen
to the stories he has to tell
stories of memory and prediction
past and future side by side
Such a romantic, that moon
and I try to write by the light
of sun caught in a jar
so pale in comparison -
the soft salmon glow
next to the sharp silver white
Such a glamorpuss, that moon
The pink ink I use melts away
as soon as it touches the page
like the invisible pen at the joke shop
I used to want so bad as a kid
what pranks I could play
with an invisible pen
People would think I was magic
that I could make the letters disappear
And tonight, I do
writing the words as if I'd spoken them
Here one moment, gone the next
Like the moon and his stories
not so much written as impressed
on the hearts of generations
like fancy stationary with raised monograms
Such an eloquent orator, that moon

Working Girl

I was watching WORKING GIRL tonight, the eighties movie with Melanie Griffith (before the lips) and Harrison Ford (before the earring), and it made me very thankful for all of those women out there who busted there butts over the years to break out of the roles they were told they were supposed to have and instead took the ones they wanted. I don't take it for granted that I can walk into a room full of business men and be taken seriously, and I'm happy to say I've never once been asked to fetch them a cup of coffee, or worse. I know there's still discrepancies when it comes to gender in the workplace, but I am very glad for how far we've come...and I'm proud to stand on those padded shoulders that came before me.

Monday, June 14, 2010

All shook up

I'm thankful that I had no real reason to be scared even though I was scared of the earthquake tonight because I live in a solid home that's built to just sway. And sway it did! I'm thankful I have such a wonderful husband who always makes me feel calm when I'm freaked out. And I'm thankful that while the cats (who were on my lap at the time) fled, the dogs stayed by my side. I know it's quite overdramatic to say, but moments like that, no matter how small, are a good reminder of how thankful I am to be alive.

Sunday in the park

Today I got to wear one of my favorite sundresses to the park where we ate cherries and rode a paddle boat through a pond filled with white ducks and googly eyed frogs and a crazy looking loon while we listened to a real live dixie land band and I did cartwheels in a field buzzing with hundreds of lady bugs that I'd like to think mean I'll have a hundred times the good luck this week:) What a day!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Pardon

My dog burps. Loudly. Like all the time. Pretty much every time he sits next to me, he looks up into my face with his big puppy eyes, opens his mouth, and lets one loose. And I laugh EVERY time. I'm pretty sure that somehow my laughter has trained him, and now he does it on purpose just to make me happy. And man oh man does it.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Mental photograph

I held cousin Sarah's baby tonight at a lovely picnic gathering of friends and family at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Los Angeles and it was a perfect moment with the clouds turning lavender and the Griffith Observatory lighting up in the background and Olivia's big brown eyes looking up at me and the soft light highlighting her beautiful auburn hair (so striking on a 7 week old baby!) and it was all topped off by her sticking out her tongue at me an making me laugh so hard I almost dropped her. Awesome:)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

No risk no reward

I'm thankful for the times when you take a risk...and it pays off. I had a meeting today and decided to pitch an idea that other people had told me maybe I should put on hold -- but I put it out there and the person I was meeting with practically did a cartwheel she loved it so much. Take that, self doubt!

Sun Power

Three days worth of spinach, two months into the carrot, a week's worth of green beans... (along with some lovely additions from Whole Foods)... and that was one heck of a partially-home-grown salad nicoise!

A beautiful dinner from a tiny little seed. Maybe I'll toss in my actor hat and become a farmer. Farmers can sleep in till 10am, right...?



Thank you Amadeus:)

Driving home after a long day, I decided to forgo my usual radio selections of NPR and Broadway tunes for some good old fashioned classical music and it was a delightful breath of fresh air. Listening to some Chopin followed by a little Mozart and my mind felt exactly like how my body feels when I float in the ocean -- free, supported, caressed, and completely relaxed. Somehow my thoughts always seem to be more focused, grounded, centered when buoyed by a wonderful piece of classical music.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A taste of home

I invented a new breakfast this morning and it made me very happy...a bowl of salty buttery grits with an egg over easy right on top. When I broke the egg, all the golden goodness poured like gravy onto the grits and it was a taste of pure southern joy. Yeehaw!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Escape from LA

I'm thankful for such a vacation that was so magical that I didn't even think to open my computer once last week! And I'm thankful that I was missed while I was gone:)