Milkman and Other Thoughts!

I love  meeting fellow creative people. I love making connections with people that inspire me and that I learn from.

Last year my friend Bethany asked me if I would be willing to write a play for her to direct as part of her graduate thesis. It was an intimidating proposition. But I agreed because, well, opportunities like that don’t come around all the time.  So we collaborated, and here we are, on the verge of opening. Yesterday as the actors where stretching, and the assistant stage manager was whirring about backstage setting props it hit me… this is a REAL SHOW. And it is possible because an extremely talented director, and an extremely talented cast and crew deemed me worthy to collaborate with.  It is pretty overwhelming!

It got me thinking about another friend of mine, and fellow blogger LA girl in L.A.  http://www.lagirlinla.blogspot.com/ who recently did and entry all about grabbing opportunities and making connections. It’s so true; we may not have power over everything in our life. We may not always get what we want, but we can put ourselves in a position to catch opportunity when it does come along. And that is something that I want to start doing more of for sure!

Oh and just in case if any of you are interested, her is a poster for our show if you happened to be in the area and want to take in some theatre!

Dates:
April 28th 7:30 pm
April 29th 9:30 pm
April 30th 7:30 pm
May 1st    2:30 pm
Location: CSULA- Arena Theatre

WEBSITE TO PURCHASE TICKET:
http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/theatre_dance/purchasetickets.php

Stressing For One

Ok, I think I might have empathy stress… if that exists I mean.   I take on other people’s stress as if it where my very own. And I have a tendency to stress about a lot of things anyways without bringing on other peoples. Big things, and small things, it does not matter. So to take on other peoples stress seems well just plain silly.

And here is the thing, I really don’t need to be stressing at all. Planning is good, planning is action, but stress is a bit unless, unless it is giving you the adrenaline to say, run away from a lion. Other than that it just serves to age you and raise your blood pressure.

So yeah, no more making others stress my own. I have to work on keeping myself under control, taking on the stress of others, is just too dang much!

What's Going On?

I need to start paying better attention to current events.

Part of my aversion is that it is just so dang depressing to follow what’s going on in the news. Of course that is not a valid excuse to keep myself in the dark. But to be fair, I usually have some vague understanding of what is going on in the world, but rarely enough to have an intelligent and thoughtful conversation about it.  Honestly it’s just plain important writer to pay attention to current events. It’s provides fodder for ones work. But beyond that being aware of what’s going on in the world is part of being a mature and educated grown up type person.

So that’s my mission. I’m going to start paying just a little more attention to the world around me. Taking the time everyday to read some headlines, or tune into some news.  The hope is I will be better for it!

The Dreaded You Should!

Can I just say, nothing puts me on the defense faster than starting a phrase with “you should...” Those two words have never set well with me. Even if a person is delivering excellent advice, if it is unsolicited and they come at me with that dreaded phrase I can feel my eyes glazing over, and my stubbornness setting in. I have to keep myself from saying "you know what YOU SHOULD mind your own business". It’s quite childish I know. After all why throw the baby out with the bath-water just because I am a brat who is metaphorically sticking my fingers in my ears and singing the La La song.

It makes me wonder how many times I have let good advice fall to the wayside due to my aversion to the words “you should”.  It makes me think that perhaps I SHOULD take a moment to listen, and to grow up, and get over that phrase.  But even seeing that deplorable phrase on this blog makes me want to not heed my own advice. Perhaps it’s just another sign that this girl in transit has a long way to go before she becomes an actually grown up type person who is not stubborn and who does not throw child like tantrums when she hears a simple phrase. 

I Am Out to Get Me

My body has been attacking me while I sleep.

As I said before I am a student, and this quarter is one of the busiest ones to date. So because of that I am a big ball of stress. And that stress is manifesting in my body while I am far off in the land of nod.

One of the things that I do when I am under pressure is grind my teeth. I know this because I wake up my jaw feels as though it has been wielded together. I also pick at the skin around my thumbs , the evidence being the bloody, deep gashes around my cuticles I find in the morning. Everything tenses up too when I wake.  I am so tightly wound that my shoulders are nearly cranked up to my ears. My back is stiff and undoubtedly full of knots.

I don’t feel terribly refreshed when I wake.  During the day I am able to remind myself to breath, or tell myself not to clench my jaw. But not at night! At night my body attacks me, when I am most vulnerable, and don’t have the consciousness to fight back.

We All Got To Lie In It

I have started making my bed. This does not seem significant, but for anyone who has ever seen my room, they know how huge this is.  I have a history of keeping my room messy. Scratch that I have a history of keeping my room disastrous.  It seriously looked like it should be roped off with yellow tape because it was a hazard zone.

But recently I have taken to making my bed. And you know what it makes me feel good. It makes me want to keep the rest of the room a bit neater. When I turn in at night I am always happy to find it so nicely made and waiting for me to pull the covers down and snuggle in.

Mostly I like it because it’s a solid manifestation that I got something accomplished. It is small, I know, but it is something. I may be stressed with homework assignments, projects and deadlines. But you know what, I made my bed, and when I see it I know that on some level I must be doing all right.

My Folks Get Hitched... Again!!!!!!!

I am not a romantic.  Not really. I mean, I think I would like to be to some degree. But I’m just not. I tend to wear an armor of skepticism when it comes to coupling. That said, my parents had their thirty-four year marriage blessed this weekend and it was lovely.

My sister and I were the witnesses, and it was awesome (especially after she and I decided to veto the original dresses my mom wanted us to wear that would have made us look like oversized flower girls… or giant matching marshmallow peeps). As we stood at the altar on either side of my parents, I have to say I could not help but choke up a little.  My mom and dad have not always had it easy. Their marriage has been laced with the obstacles and pitfalls that they seem to omit from the happily ever-after fairy tales of our childhood. But they always have seemed to find their way back to each other.  Perhaps that is real romance, not taking for granted the “for better” and being able to roll with the “for worse”.

           

I don’t know what the future brings, not for my parents, not for any of us really. But in that moment, where the priest blessed the rings that my mother and father re-exchanged, I felt a sense of beauty in choosing to intertwine your life with another. Now I’m not saying I am trading in my skeptic card for that of a hopeless romantic. But I am saying my parents are beautiful people, who after thirty-four years of marriage deserved a little celebration and acknowledgment of the life their love has built.

Do These Supplements Make Me Look Old?

I’m thinking of investing in one of those plastic weekly pill things. Now you can understand my reluctance to make such a purchase. After all I am not eighty-nine years old, and I don’t have a laundry list of medication I have to take on a daily basis. However  in my pursuit to transform myself into a healthier, better-rounded human being, I have started to take vitamins and supplements.

I don’t particularly like taking a multivitamin and fish oil pill. They are large and kind of gross, and if I don’t have enough food in my stomach I will get a tummy ache. And I am not exactly good at remembering to take them. Most likely because I don't particularly like taking them in the first place. But everything I have read on the subject seems to point to the fact that a habit of taking these things is ultimately beneficial.

So there you have it, I'm thinking of getting one of those weekly pill things. As much as I dislike the idea, I am seriously thinking about it.  Especially since I am more than likely going to add a calcium supplement too, due to the recent discovery that I am probably lactose intolerant (I will spare you the details of the clues that lead to this discovery)

Oh youth, it was fun while it lasted!