At this very moment, I am thanking the gods of youtube for creating the playlist feature.  A string of youtube videos for a favorite artist is my saving grace this morning.  You see, I forgot my trusty music mix, my iPod, and having been DYING in the white noise of my air conditioning.  I hate to work in the quiet.  Most days, I listen to the great film scores in an ever streaming form of inspiration.  My favorites would include the scores of E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Hook... weird, they are all Speilberg... Well, I suppose he favors the film score and I appreciate that.  I mean, there's nothing better than a kick ass soundtrack for a film, but I do love a beautiful score.  I would add Titanic to that list.  And 1996's Romeo and Juliet.  The Balcony Scene's score is divine. 

However, today is a new day.  And a new routine.  Instead of the string section wafting through the air, I have the beautiful vocal stylings of Jason Mraz in my ear, whispering quietly that I need to get the hell out of Chicago and park my ass on the first beach I find.  Maybe this musical choice wasn't the best idea for my work ethic...  Oh well.  I do love me some Jason Mraz.  Perhaps, today, I will pretend to work and instead, write a new story.  Yes.  I believe that's what I will do.  


Happy writing, world.  Happy Wednesday.
With Love, Me x

Plotting for Script Frenzy... and Failing... Miserably...

My sweet daughter is sleeping next to me, and I am blankly staring at this page, trying to construct a brilliant story to center my month of April around.  April is my favorite time of year, Script Frenzy!  I hate to admit that none of my previous scripts birthed through the Screnzy process are readable... I wouldn't wish them upon my worst enemy... But, this year, I am bound and determined to create something that is, dare I say, good... or, at the least, mediocre.  You can build on mediocre.  You can't build on total crap.  Trust me, I've tried.

I'd like to write a love story.  All you need is love, right?  I don't want some boring, run of the mill love story... I want something real.  Something tangible.  Something that you watch and relate to... Something new.  Hmmmm... it's been done so much, that I can't find my new angle. 

It's not even April, and I already feel defeated.

Sometimes I know I am my own worst enemy... this would be one of those times...

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.”

~ Oprah

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Move on.

My Voice

Words to live by... with love.

WWJBD?

I have wracked my brain for months and months, trying to find my calling in writing this blog.  I have started and stopped, convinced of the name, though not the concept.  I have known for quite a long time that I have a considerable amount of things to say, but not quite sure of the avenue.  It's a frustrating thing... knowing that you want to do something, but not knowing how...

Then, it came to me... in a Jimmy Buffett song...

Feel it all with a willing heart
Every stop is a place to start

What is so incredibly ironic is that, this quote has been here the whole time.  I named this blog, the dancing life, before I knew what that was.  And now, I have my inspiration.

What would Jimmy Buffett do?
 

Yes, my dears, I have been a parrothead since birth.  I was born into a broken home, but a home full of love, nonetheless.  It eventually turned into a wonderfully complicated extended family, that loved more than hated, and held Mr. Margaritaville on that beautiful, bright pedestal in the sky. 

It made sense, though.  Jimmy Buffett is the poster child for escapism and escapism is what we all needed, to get out of our menial existences in suburban middle America.  While our world continued to fall apart, we held together around the idea that tomorrow my hold something brighter.

Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Move on.

I think this is why my mother, bless her heart, made us travel so much.  While my other friends shopped for new clothes, new shoes, and new shit to show off, my sister, my mom and I were out seeing the world in year old clothes.  We may not have had a ton of money, but I walked away from my adolescensce much richer than my fellow teenagers.  And I will be eternally thankful to her.  And I think JB has something to do with it.

Jimmy Buffett's philosophies run through my blood, and instead of pouting about it, while stuck in the suburbs of Chicago, not the high seas, I would attempt to create my own reality.  I will try to find a way to make this mundane world I currently exist in, into a world that Jimmy Buffet would be proud of... I will escape into books and beauty...

This much I know is true... If you put it into the universe, the universe will send it back to you.  So, here you go, universe. 

Someday, I will be parking myself on my back porch, looking out onto the water.  My boat will be bobbing up and down, with the slow breath of the ocean waves.  A cup of coffee in hand, I will breathe deep and smile, knowing that I have finally made it. 

So, I ask you, what would Jimmy Buffett do?  How do I get from my current point A to my inevitable point B? 

That's what this blog is all about... taking a quiet life of normality, to a dancing life.

My very own la vie dansante.