I Should Add...

If I'm gonna be so complainy, then I should make a little time to say some nice things too.

Today's meeting was very refreshing. I'd say we were probably 90-95% in agreement. We didn't butt heads. They offered some excellent insight on the climax that Jim n' I were both totally on board with. Our collaborative brainstorming efforts even led to a couple moments that we're all very excited about.

Hooray!

Annnd, better still, we were told that we're allowed to pick n' choose from the notes provided by the external producer, and to just shoot them an email to go over the ones that we're not in agreement with. What a relief! He had a lot notes that left us scratching our heads and kind of worrying because they totally conflicted with what our producers were saying.

Anyhow, I'm in better spirits now (which is rare after one of these meetings.)

So there.  Life's not so bleak after all.

Jeez, do you think they read my blog post? ;)

Urban Adventure Challenge Gears Up

I soo want to do this!

I've only caught maybe 5 minutes of the Amazing Race before, but it was pretty easy to get the idea... people run around the world doing crazy challenges, and the first ones back to a specific destination win. Seems like a cool idea. Of course, the Amazing Race is only open to U.S. residents.

So.... if I can't race around the world, then why not race around Kelowna?

Oh yeah, because it's $150 per person and I have no money.

Then again, that $150 goes towards a really good tax deductible cause - the Kelowna Food Bank.

Hmm... maybe I can just put a little bit of my spending allowance aside over the next couple weeks?

Either way, I have until April 15th to decide if this is something I can afford to do or not. I just need to find a partner in crime. ;)

Urban Adventure Challenge Gears Up

It's not quite 'The Amazing Race,' but it's darn close. 

The fifth annual Urban Adventure Challenge is returning to Kelowna and residents have until April 15 to register for the event. 

Event coordinator Aaron Fleury, says teams of two will meet at City Park on April 24 where they will be given a list of challenges to complete at various points across the city. 

“The challenges are designed to test the teams in mind, body and spirit. The first team to complete all their challenges and make it back to City Park is the winner,” says Fleury. 

He says the challenges range in variety from mind challenging puzzles to physical challenges. 

The event is a fund raiser for the Kelowna Food Bank, specifically the Tiny Bundles Program. 

“There is a registration fee of $300 per team and teams will fund raise to bring in extra money for the food bank. Last year's event raised about $7,000 and of course we are hoping to match or exceed that this year.” 

Fleury says each of the challenges will be sponsored by local businesses. 

“We are still looking for business sponsors and we try to match the challenge to the business and make the challenge take place near the business if possible.” 

Each team will have to complete roughly 15 challenges.

Urban Adventure Challenge Website

Roses and Thorns March 6 - March 26

Ah, twenty days of roses n' thorns to catch up on... Let me think.

Rose
The thirty seconds of "give yourselves a big pat on the back" and "this really works for us" comments from our producers.

Thorn
An exhausting 10+ hours of meetings to dissect every noun, verb and adjective.

Rose
A few new moments Jim n' I came up with while writing. A couple of them are really good, which I suppose goes to show how the script gets better with every draft. (Even though we often lose a few good moments with every rewrite too... so really, I guess it balances out.)

Thorn
Debates. To our producers' credits, they have about four or five other projects on their plates, so they can't always remember every little detail of our story like we do, such as how a specific action in one scene plays into other scenes and covers plot holes.

At the same time, it's all these frustrating debates that really made those 10+ hours of our meetings so very draining. It's extremely important to Jim n' I that we protect the integrity of our story, and every decision we made was done with purpose. So constantly defending our rationale of why we wrote this or that is... well... pretty tiresome, to put it politely.


On the smoother side of this thorn, we eventually won almost every debate, which felt really good... except maybe a couple situations where les producers were able to convince us that something really wasn't all that important. (Of course, we'll see what armchair critics on IMDB are saying two years from now when they point out these minor missing details...)

Rose
Despite the scathing review written by some prude on Castanet entitled, "Stale, Filthy, Cheap", I thought the Norm McDonald show was actually pretty funny last weekend. The reviewer highlighted a healthy sampling of some of his darkest jokes or references, taking them completely out of context and really making it sound like the worst show eva. Not so.

I mean, some of the humour was definitely dark, but I wouldn't say filthy. And while I wasn't totally busting a gut like some of my friends -- then again, I'm not a real 'lol' sort of gal, I'd say 50% of my laughter is usually on the inside -- I still enjoyed the show.

The one thing I did like in her review was her mention of the local opening act, Rob Balson. I guess I have low expectations for opening acts, especially when they're local. But this guy was tres funny. I would totally pay to see him again.

Thorn
Because the lawyers have been on holidays and haven't reviewed the payment agreements yet, we haven't been paid for all this work we've been doing over the last month n' a half. And because we've been so swamped with script nonsense, we haven't had the capacity to take on much contract work. So in that regard, lately our biweekly paychecks have been slim to none. Les producers were thoughtfully stressing out about this, but we told them not to worry... we haven't been evicted yet. ;)

Actually, I should clarify that we're not really in dire straights. Our bills are up to date n' all that. We've just been a lil' more frugal and well... that's what a line of credit is for. Emergencies like this. Even though it hardly feels like an emergency. We should hopefully get our next funding installment next week and can finally reimburse ourselves. Then we'll be able to float until production payments start rollin' in late summer/early fall.

Ah yes, independent filmmaking... so glamorous, no?

Rose
In my protest against soup (which I really do love, but only when it's a matter of choice and not a time-saving requirement), I've been exploring other quick meal options and have really fallen in love with this super easy chickpea sandwich spread. (How pathetic is my life that this is one of my highlights of the last three weeks? Ha.)

Anyhow, you just mash up a can of chickpeas with some chopped celery and/or onion. Then add some mayo or ranch dressing, lemon juice, mustard and dill. Salt n' pepper too if you like.  Put it on a sammich or a pita pocket with cheese, sprouts, tomato, avocado n' cucumber.  (Or whatever... that's just what I use.) Yum, yum. So tasty and filling.

At least it's a better option than soup n' a bun...

Thorn
St. Pat's was kind of a drag. Since it landed on a Wednesday, Jim n' I were in the midst of our exhausting meetings and feeling pretty battered n' bruised.  So we convinced ourselves that we deserved a break and could go out for some sort of green beverage and be around crowds of cheerful spirits. Hopefully some of it would rub off on us.

Jim is my legitimate 'in' as he tells me he's half Irish, so I don't feel like I'm totally bandwagon jumping... and even if I were, I don't care. Do you really need to be Irish to enjoy a colourful beer in the middle of March? Of course not.

Anyhow, naturally by the time we finally pulled ourselves away from our work, it was after 5:00 and every pub worth going to was packed to the rafters. Jeez... even Docs was charging a $5.00 cover to just get in and stand around.  (As there were obviously no tables left.)

So, we ended up going to Boston Pizza instead. And not the good one either. The crappy old one near downtown. The place was depressingly dead, except for a couple families with cranky kids.

Then, because my day wasn't irritating enough, the waitress accidentally screwed up my order and gave me fries instead of salad. I shook my head to Jim, managed a laugh and figured I'd just eat them anyway. But when I went to put some malt vinegar on them, I soon realized that it was actually soya sauce meant for Jim's stir fry. Blegh. Soya sauce fries. That's when I decided to politely send them back to get what I had actually ordered...

We ended up sitting in silence through most of our meal, just feeling totally beaten down after another day of being dragged through the mud. (Although I kept likening it to being dragged through gravel, because it was much more rough n' painful.)

So yeah... it kinda sucked. Oh well... I'm not Irish anyway.

Rose
I went out for a run with my friend Lara last Thursday. Our meeting had been postponed for the day, so Jim n' I got a much needed reprieve and were in better spirits than we were on Wednesday night.

Anyhow, it was my first run of the season, and it felt really good to get my blood flowin'. Also, on one particularly hard day, I exhausted my frustrations by working out with my weights n' whatnot for the first time in probably a month. Yes, I was sore the next day... but again, it felt really good, especially since I've felt like such a fat sloth over these last few weeks. (And yes, I know, I know.... I'm not fat. But I'm definitely not feeling too fit either.)

Whatever happened to my new year's goal to work out three times a week? Sheesh... I sure dropped the ball on that one. (Is it just me or is this rose starting to sound more like a thorn?)

Thorn
I scraped my top knuckle on my middle finger and I don't know how. I realized it the other day when I was washing my hands, and I was like, "Ouch. How'd that happen?" It was right after I had finished with my morning routine, so I think I might've scraped it against my tooth while flossing or something. I don't know. Anyhow, it was one of those stingy hurts that you're constantly aware of for a couple days.

Okay, these thorns are totally pathetic. Then again, so were my roses. Really, I've had nothing goin' on over these last few weeks except sitting in my PJ's with a mini ironing board across our laps. (Because it makes it easier to share the laptop.)

And noooooow, I'm going to get the hell off this thing and go do something productive, like clean out that spare room before you catch me on an episode of hoarders. Actually, earlier this week when we took a break from writing, I jumped into reorganizing it. You know writing is really becoming a chore, when cleaning becomes a fun alternative.

Ciao.

Another Long Two Weeks...

After our three days off the other week, our producers returned with their notes. While they did have quite a few nice things to say, it's hard to desperately cling to those thirty seconds of kudos over the next ten+ hours of constructive criticism.

Yes, 10+ hours. Really.

Over the course of five days, we had a daily two hour meeting where we would slowly go through every single page of our script, and our producer's various notes therein. Some, well actually most, were very minor, such as "Bring this line up in the conversation sooner" or "Find a more descriptive way of saying 'Donovan's face drains.'"

We were also told that we're allowed to cheat now. The hard n' fast screenwriting rule that we have always followed has been "show, not tell." But at this point in the game, I guess we're allowed to give a little more direction to the actor about what characters are thinking, as long as we keep it brief of course.

While most critiques were minor, there was a good handful or two of larger revisions which involved switching scenes back the way we had 'em (argh...), thinking of new plot devices (ugh!), and "just" changing things to be more profound. (Ha! Soooo much easier said than done, people!)

Anyhow, we passed it back to our producers today, who have now passed it along to our other 'newer' producers, as well as our pro readers.

As soon as I'm done this blog post, I've promised myself not to think any more about it. Jim n' I are going to totally enjoy the next few guilt-free days off before our producers return with more notes. While we fully recognize that She Who Hates Everything will definitely find something new to hate, we're hopeful that this upcoming version will be the last frickin' draft - for realsies! Our critical path says we need to have an actor attached to play Donovan by May 27th, so we don't have much more time to be tweaking each line to please to unpleasable.

Not to mention, SWHE took a stab at writing a couple of scenes to show us an example of how she'd do 'em, and our producers felt she missed the mark. Donovan was really rude. Mean, even. And of course, there were a few obligatory f-bombs.

So while we value whatever insight she might provide in this next report, we're feeling a little more confident about where we're taking the story, as opposed to where she might like to take it. (I'll also add that the scenes she rewrote were total Gran Torino rip offs... Donovan is not Clint Eastwood, as cool as Clint might be.)

So yeah... that's what we've been up to lately. Workin'.

With every draft we write, I can't tell you how excited I am to ditch this screenwriting stuff to start working on the book. Gosh, just imagine the opportunity to write eloquent prose and meaningful metaphors, and not have to worry about how the hell I'm going to cut down an entire paragraph to fit on one line. It's gonna be awesome!

Art Show - Part Three

All right, and now let's take a little walk down one of the newer wings of my virtual gallery.

Unfinished

acrylic, 2007

Back in high school, we were required to hand in a weekly drawing for art class. The drawing needed to fill the entire 8.5 X 11 page. If the picture you were drawing didn't have a background, then you had to make something up, even if it was just shading and shadows. 

Since that time, I've become a little obsessive compulsive about filling the page... or canvas, as the case may be. I never consider a painting complete until the entire canvas - including the sides - are completely covered in paint. And as I explained in my last post, I also don't like starting a new painting until I've finished the last one.

Therefore, sometimes a painting will sit on my easel for over a month or two (or more) until I feel inclined to go back to it. That being said, there is almost always unfinished art haunting our place, which is what inspired this piece. I made it with the intention to break my own rules and just leave it unfinished. 

Of course, after a year or two of having it hang near our entrance, I couldn't help but feel that it subliminally sent a bad vibe. An unfinished painting sends the message that you can't finish what you've started. So now it hangs behind my bathroom door, with the pseudo-rationale that the bathroom mirror is the one place where we look at ourselves most often. And much like our bodies, our minds, our souls, we grow older, wiser, deeper over a lifetime. We are never a finished product. We are each an unfinished work of art.

Magnolia

oil paint, 2008/2009

I have no excuse why this painting took me forever to finish, except that it's done in oil paint. Unlike acrylic, which takes only a few minutes to dry, depending on it's thickness, oil paint can take a few days to a few weeks. So if I want to touch something up without the colours blending, I have to wait a while. Within that time, I often get distracted or simply lose my craving to paint. So yeah... this one sat on the easel for a long, looong time. 

Anyhoo, there's no real story behind this painting, except that when I first moved to Kelowna, I fell head over heels in love with the magnolia trees. It's such a shame that beauty so brilliant should also be so brief. I wish the magnolia trees would display their stunning blossoms year round, instead of only for a month. So this is my little ode to the magnolia.

This painting also breaks one of my other high school art class rules - never use black, because black is not found in nature. Even though I used black for the background in Power, I somehow felt rebellious using it for this tree. In fact, I liked the stark contrast of the black on white so much, that I decided to paint the ground plain white instead of swirly green. 

Tulip

acrylic, 2009

Last March when I was back home, (a year ago to the date, actually), I spent some time in Ottawa visiting my good friend Heather. While I was there, she mentioned how she had been trying to find a picture of tulips that would match her shower curtain. Ideally, she wanted a set of three, but at the time she hadn't even managed to find one. 

In retrospect, I probably should've taken a picture of her shower curtain. Instead, I took a mental snapshot. Pinkish-red and orange tulips. Good enough.

That summer, Heather and her mom passed through Kelowna on their little wild west road trip. Their visit coincided with Heather's 30th birthday. Guess what she got? 

I forgot to take a picture, but Heather was kind enough to send these along to me so I could include them in this post.

By The Sea

acrylic, 2009

Keeping with the theme of bathroom art, last year my cousin Jodie and her husband Jeff completely renovated their bathroom top to bottom. Since she hadn't posted any pictures online yet, and I wouldn't be going back home anytime soon, I had Jode describe the new room to me in detail. The colours, the counters, the fixtures and mirror. As she described everything, she mentioned that they hadn't found anything they liked for the walls yet. 

Now, with Heather's gift, it was much less a risk. I had seen her shower curtain. I knew exactly what she wanted. But Jodie's bathroom... I had no idea. And even if I could get the colours right, whose to say she'd even like the painting enough to put holes in her brand new walls for it. Homemade gifts can be a little dodgy like that.

Anyhow, I held my brush and my breath and whipped up with this little seascape scene, hoping to goodness she might like it. I sent it off for her birthday in November, and fortunately, she loved it! *whew*  Jode said that it matched the room perfectly, and that she put it up right away. Yay!

I should also mention that neither Heather nor Jodie were actually hinting for paintings. I just pay attention. ;)

Ocean

acrylic, 2009/2010

Well, at this point since I had painted a picture for both Jodie and Heather's bathrooms, I figured I'd do one for Steph too, since she was in the process of redecorating her spare bedroom with a similar marine theme as Jode's salle de bain. 

Now, Steph has different tastes. She's obsessed with storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, and destruction at sea. I remember when she came out to visit a few years back, she fell in love with this huge painting at the Art Ark of a sunken ship. I swear the girl was pirate or something in a former life... then again, I don't know if pirates necessarily love storms? All I know is that Steph sure does.

Sooo... keeping all this in mind, I painted a little sailboat about to get swallowed up by a massive curling wave. Jim calls it my "Perfect Storm" picture. And fortunately, Steph loved it enough to actually hang it in her living room, not in the spare bedroom as I had intended.

Okay, I have one more painting to do, but I documented the entire process from conception to completion, so it kinda demands a post of it's own. 

Until next time....

Art Show Part Two

Okay, and now let the show go on!

Power

oil paint, 2004

I had sketched a picture where two hands were cupped open and the fingers were petals. I called the drawing "flower fingers". (Original, yes I know...) I thought it might make a neat painting. So then, why would I name this "Power" instead of "Flower Fingers"? Well, that's due to the timing. I started painting this picture right after I kicked out my bf of 6 years (Yeah, the "moon penis" guy... And I just realized if you haven't seen my Art Show Part One post, that will sound very bad. Oh well... serves you right for not reading my posts in order. ;) 

Anyhow, my life as I knew it was undergoing a massive transformation of self empowerment at this time. I was happy. I felt good about myself, and positive about the future. If  I could choose a colour to describe myself, it would've been bright pink. And so I bought a great big canvas and started painting my bright pink flower fingers. 

But as the painting went on, I felt that the flower fingers should be holding something, rather than cupping an empty void. This is where the flames came from. The fire burning within me.

I've often thought that if I had the time or patience, I would buy 8 more canvases to surround this one, to make a series of 9, and would then expand the blue and purple swirls to make them into butterfly wings, and extend the flower stems to represent the butterfly's body. However, I doubt this is something I'll ever do, unless I recreate this painting on a smaller scale.

Some of you might be wondering why I didn't call this "Flower Power", which might sound more appropriate than simply "Power". Well, that's because a silly name like flower power would completely cheapen the emotion/passion/purpose behind the painting, now wouldn't it? 

Kelowna

acrylic, 2004/2005

Kelowna was my biggest painting yet... so where's the painting? I hate it and so I'm not going to show it to you. It sits in my spare bedroom closet, still waiting to be gessoed over. 

When my folks came out to visit Kelowna for the first time, my dad asked me to paint a scenery picture for him someday. I spent months capturing the mountains, the lake, the sky. It was so awesome! Then, instead of painting a ponderosa pine in the foreground as I had originally intended, on a whim I felt inspired to go with a weeping willow. What a stupid move. The weeping willow now completely dominates the painting. You can't even see one of the mountains I spent so long on. Again, I really friggin' hate it.

The only reason I'm including a write up about it, is because I just wanted to illustrate how I wasted a year painting something that no one will ever see.

Orchid

oil paint, 2005/2006

After the Kelowna fiasco, I took most of 2005 off from painting. I have these silly little rules in my head where I have to complete a painting before I can start a new one, and there was just no way I was going to go back and finish Kelowna. So it took a while before I convinced myself that it's okay to start fresh with something else.

I really love orchids, so that's obviously what inspired this painting, even though they really don't look like any orchids I've ever seen. Again, it's just my go with the flow (or perhaps go with the flower) style. 

I was working on this piece when I was invited to display some of my art at the White House Night Gallery. The WHNG was a little ramshackle house behind the mall, turned into an underground gallery run by university students. They had afternoon showings on the weekends for "adults" or parents, and then on Saturday nights they had bands from all over BC, as well as cheap beer and of course, art. (It was also where we discovered "Counting Heartbeats", and awesome little band from Victoria. Love them.) It was kinda cool, but hardly a legit showing.

Anyhow, I finished Orchid at the last minute and submitted it while still wet. I forgot to include a price, so while there was apparently interest, it was marked not for sale. Just as well... Jim seems to really like this one and didn't think I should sell it.

Okay, I have a handful more paintings to share... but I better get some work done before our conference call. Again, I'll continue this post a little later.

Art Show - Part One

Well, I finally got my butt in gear and scanned in/took photos of some of my paintings. My art never sees the light of day. Unless you're a guest in our home, or you're one of a small handful of friends or family I have painted a picture for, you'll never see a Melodie Original. (Except that one art show at the White House Night Gallery, where I had a painting displayed... but that hardly counts.) So please consider this little virtual art show to be a very exclusive privilege. Ha.

But first, maybe I'll give you an introduction to my work. 

First of all, when I draw - which, I'll admit isn't as often as it used to be - I usually go for photo-realism. But when I paint, not so much. Someday I may post some of my drawings on here and prove that I actually can draw quite well. Otherwise, you'd never know it just by looking at the abstracty stylings of my paintings.

I always have a vague idea of what I'm going to paint when I start, but I generally like to let inspiration take hold and direct the paint brush for me. This "go with the flow" method is very against the grain to the way I was raised. My dad is a folk artist (although probably not as much in recent years), and so was his mother. I figure I inherited my love of painting from them. I've also inherited a lot of their old acrylic paints too, when my grandmother passed away and whenever my dad had doubles or was purging from his vast collection of colours.

If you're not familiar with folk art, just go to any craft sale and you'll get an eyeful. Think Country Kitchen type stuff. You know, like flowers and harvest vegetables painted on some form of woodwork (like stools, shelves, plaques, etc.) One of my favourite pieces my dad did was when he ditched his usual wooden canvas, and instead took an old pan, painted the inside all black and then painted a bunch of vegetables in the center. It looked pretty cool... but I guess you kinda had to see it.

Anyhow, there's absolutely nothing wrong with folk art, but the thing that always bothered me was that folk artists generally follow these specific patterns. Dad and grandma owned stacks upon stacks of pattern books. I actually remember my grandma trading pattern books with her next door neighbour, who was also the artsy-craftsy type.  I'm sure these days the internet renders pattern books almost obsolete, as you can just look up a pattern for anything you want, and print it off...

Now, while pattern are fine for some, they were just never my style. For instance, dad had given me some nesting dolls to paint, and instead of following a traditional pattern, I chose to follow the natural wood-grain with a rainbow of colours. I think the end result was a lot more interesting and unique...

So yes, this is more or less my style. Swirly, colourful, and quite often nature or spiritually themed... in a way. I'll let you decide for yourself.

Because my style is so loose and free, I can never understand when people insist that they can't paint.  You don't have to paint the Mona Lisa to be a painter... Just choose a colour, put your brush on the canvas and see what your soul has to say.

Mother and Child

oil paint, 2001

The warm colours were initially a mindless doodle in my sketch book, but when I looked at it, it reminded me of a mother connected to her child. At the time, my sister was pregnant with Josie, so I decided to paint it for her. I had no reason for painting it on four separate canvases, except that I wanted to. (Although I'd like to pretend that it was a conscious decision in order to represent that the bond between mother and child cannot be severed. That sound a lot better, doesn't it?)

I really liked this painting, and so I took a million pictures of it, because something told me that I'd never see it again. Sure enough, when Amy left Charlie just over a year later, he burned everything of hers, including the baby's crib. I know this painting was probably amongst the first items torched, since Charlie hated me and had also complained that I didn't include him in the painting. (I know, right?! What a loser.)

A year later, my mom asked me to paint a picture of Josie for them to give to Amy as a gift. I never took a picture of that one for future reference, but it was done in oils and was more realistic, except for the swirly purple background. The last time I saw it, mom was using it to prop up a different picture on a shelf... :P

Tree Spirit

oil paint, 2002

Not a great picture, since I left the flash on when I took this, but this is all I've got. I left this painting at my parent's house before moving out west, in hopes that they might mail it out to me someday. They never did. I'm sure it's stuffed in their basement somewhere... maybe behind the freezer.

Drawing Down The Moon

mixed media - oil and paper, 2002

First, I will explain that drawing down the moon is a ritual practiced by some earthy religions, like pagans and wiccans, n' what not. While it's not something I've ever personally done, I've always like the idea. In a nutshell, it's a form of meditation preformed beneath the light of the full moon, near water where the moon's reflection can be seen. The intent is that the Goddess, symbolized by the moon, comes down and speaks through the one invoking her, providing insights, etc.

That being said, this picture was supposed to illustrate a feminine figure swirling to earth from the light of the moon. I also included magazine pictures of planets and star charts, instead of my usual swirly backgrounds.

Now, the unfortunate story to this painting - which I'm very reluctant to share, but will anyway because it makes for an interesting side note, even though it simply tortures me - is that my ex gave it a different name, as did all his stupid little friends from work. (I won't beat up on my old roommates Matt n' Chad, because at least they tried to be a bit nicer about it.) So while it still pisses me off to no end, I can't deny the effing ironic accuracy that my intended symbol of Divine femininity, actually does look like a "moon penis". F*ck. 

Of course, when pressed to say what he thought it looked like, bless his soul, Jim opted for a much safer response of "melting bowling pin"... although once I told him the story, he too couldn't deny that it "Yeah, I guess it does look like a moon penis." :P

Jungle

acrylic, 2003

When I was in college, I was really into making collages. (I actually made quite a few during high school too.) So I was always scouring old magazines for pictures to clip up. During that time, I had briefly worked for a cleaning company that did banks, schools, court houses n' such. Anyhow, one day we were cleaning out a school library and the librarian asked if I wanted this huge box of National Geographic magazines. And because I apparently didn't have enough garbage cluttering up my life, I took the box home.

Anyhow, in one of those magazines there was a two page centerfold of a jungle scene. It was a drawing that included every type of plant and animal imaginable. The drawing was too nice to cut up, so I stuck it on the wall. 

Well, I carried that drawing (and that box of chopped up National Geo's) around for years. Finally, it started looking a little ratty, so I decided to paint a jungle scene of my own to always remember it by. Last year, I passed the painting on to Josie, who I thought might like it. Hopefully it won't have a similar fate as the two other paintings sent her way.

Okay... I have a lot of other paintings to share, but let's leave it here for now, and I'll post the rest later. I didn't realize I'd end up doing such lengthy explanations for all of them. (Although a lot of my more recent paintings have been gifts, so they don't really have big stories attached.)

How I Spent My First Day Off In Three Weeks....

* Slept in an extra 20 minutes.

* Dyed my hair as soon as I hopped outta bed.

* Had a quick conference call with AS about the paperwork we need to sign when we get paid for this next phase. Just legalese rights n' ownership stuff in case the movie doesn't get made before 2012 (which they certainly don't anticipate). All in all, it was a good call.

* Finally picked up our contract work pay cheques from the beginning of the month.

* Enjoyed a late brunch at Milestone's to celebrate our latest milestone. Yes, I realize that may sound lame to celebrate our milestones at Milestones, but they've got an excellent breakfast burrito that definitely tops our usual grainy cereal and skim milk breaky.

* Met up with Jay and the nieces in the mall food court. Jay has called Jim almost every single day for the last week n' a half  hoping to hang out n' grab a coffee. (I guess he didn't get the memo...)

It was nice to see the girls. Shayla was also kind enough to give me a very thorough presentation on how the one drop vs. three drop buttons work on the toilet. I didn't realize that taking a 5 year old to the bathroom would be such an educational field trip.

* Did the big grocery shop. Seems that Superstore has done some renovations over the past month. And while I appreciate that they've expanded their organic section and made the aisles wider to facilitate cart navigation, I'm still gonna complain because I was friggin' lost!

Have you been in there lately? They've changed the order of EVERYTHING! I have a very comfortable routine when I grocery shop. I know where everything is and which aisle contains exactly what I need... and now it's all backwards and upside down.

Anyhow, I guess it feels good to get the big shop out of the way, even if it was a bit of a confusing pain AND a nuisance because some items hadn't been restocked yet, like my meatless chicken breasts. That's a real staple for us, so now we're gonna have to go back and grab a couple boxes at some point. Meh. :P

* Grabbed some movies at Blockbuster. All three of which I'm really excited to see -- Up In The Air, Where The Wild Things Are, and Whip It.

* Did a few more chores, since I was still feeling productive when we got home.

* Made a very tasty dinner of sweet pumpkin mezzaluna with toasted pecans and feta tossed in olive oil and sage, along with salad, garlic buttered focaccia, and our celebratory bottle of Gewurztraminer. And for the first time in probably a month, we ate at the dining room table by candlelight! Wow! The dining room! Imagine!

I always find that dinner and conversation at the dining room table will linger for hours. The next thing you know, it's 10:00 and we're running next door to grab another bottle of wine. (I swear, that liquor store is far too convenient sometimes.) Meanwhile, our usual meals eaten in the living room are done in only 20 minutes give-or-take. (In other words, the exact length of time it takes to watch a sitcom on DVD. )

* Finished watching the rest of The 40 Year Old Virgin, that we started the night before.  It was great watching it again since I haven't seen it in about 3 years.

And yes, that's about it. It feels SO GOOD to rejoin the world of the living, and to not be a mole person any more. (I don't know if you watched the Oscars last week, but we had it on while we worked and it totally made me laugh when Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey were presenting the award for best original screenplay, and he likened writers to mole people. I know it was a joke, but seriously, that's how I feel!!)

DONE! (again...)

I Am Slowly Going Crazy....

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Switch!

Crazy going slowly am I.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Switch!

Do you remember that song from The Elephant Show, with Sharon, Lois and Bram (who I used to think's name was Bran, and so I never liked him, because there's nothing appealing about bran to a 5 year old)?

Anyhow, even if you don't know the song, it totally describes the way I'm feeling lately... or at least for the last two days.

Each morning I wake up with this insane sense of false hope. I smile to myself, thinking that we are one day closer to the finish line for this damn draft... which I suppose we are... but then again, each day never ends quite as celebratory as I hope it to. Instead we're always 20 or 30 pages behind what I was anticipating.

It's funny (well, not really...) how you can read something you wrote and felt good about only a few days earlier, and then suddenly realize what a total piece of shit it is. (Kinda the way I'm feeling now as I proof this blog post and find that half my sentences make absolutely no sense. Forgive me, for clearly I've lost my mind... or at least my ability to communicate.)

Le sigh.

Jim hit the nail on the head when he said that we're currently working under the pressure of time (with our 'real' deadline looming - today was our self-imposed deadline and there's just no friggin' way...), the pressure of length (to cut off at least another 4 pages), and the pressure of making it the best that it can possibly be (since this is supposed to be our 'casting' script). Even just one of those pressures is enough to make a person stressed out.... but all three? Jesus H. Christ!

And where oh where prey tell, do the hours in the day go?

First, I'm having coffee n' cereal with Regis and Kelly, and the next thing I know it's 10:30 at night and we are still. not. done. It's like there's some sort of strange time warp black hole thing occurs the moment we put the blanket across our legs and the mini ironing board across our laps. 

Just to explain, we use the mini ironing board so we have an even surface to share the laptop on during this final working-together-polishing-phase. We are quite a sight to behold, I'm sure... sitting in lingerie and/or pajamas beneath a blanket and ironing board, with our cats trying to snuggle in as close as they possibly can. I wanted to take a picture today, but Jim wouldn't let me. I wonder why? Ha.

Anyhow, I know I shouldn't be complaining about this incredibly rare opportunity we've been blessed with. But I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that at least twice today when confronted with difficult scenes that took hours to resolve, for a super split nano-second, an exhausted little voice somewhere in the back of my mind whispered, "Just give up." 

Ha. Of course, that's absolutely not an option. And obviously the voice evaporated as quickly as it materialized. We just have to come to terms with the fact that this struggle is all a part of "The Dip". To quote Jim, who is always quoting "The Dip" (by Seth Godin), "The dip creates scarcity and scarcity creates value." 

The book also goes on to say, "Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most." Of course, it also says, "Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new." 

Given how far we've come and how quickly, I think I know which group we have the potential to belong to... but that still doesn't stop the very occasional voice from quietly taunting my poor tired brain. 

Then again, the fact that I'm even hearing these voices in the first place just goes to show that...

I am slowly going crazy.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Switch!

Crazy going slowly am I.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Switch!

Roses and Thorns Feb 20 - March 5

I really shouldn't leave my roses n' thorns posts for two weeks, because then my mind suddenly draws a blank when the time comes to write.

Hmm.... let me see....

Rose
The last two days we made crazy good progress, and we got our script done a day ahead of schedule! Whoo-Hoo!

Actually, it's not done-done, we just have all the scenes written out. Now we'll spend the next four days (instead of our anticipated 3 days) polishing and finding a way to somehow hack out the extra 8 pages that spill over our 100 minute goal.

Best of all, our self-imposed deadline is to hand it in sometime on the 9th, while our producers are expecting us to hand it in on the 12th (even though they suggested the sooner the better.) Oh, won't they be surprised!

I'm really looking forward to a couple days off...

Thorn

I've had a couple thorny days over the last two weeks. Just getting irritable about the script, banging my head against the wall trying to figure out plot holes, and worrying about going over in our page count. But as the rose above suggests, it's all good now.

Rose
Last Friday, Ray and Jay invited us next door to Brandt's for a drink. Although we initially declined, because it was late and we were already in our pj's (but honestly, when are we not in our pj's?), we had a change of heart since we're always so cooped up. We decided it might be nice just to leave the friggin' house, especially if we weren't going to do any more work for the night.

So we did. But that's not my rose....

As we're sitting there chatting, my friend Rhonda, who I haven't seen since her birthday last April, came over with my salad tongs in her hand! What a funny surprise! I had forgotten the tongs at her place when I brought a salad to her BBQ last year.

The tongs were a wedding gift, and they're carved with Native American art. Rhonda said she could tell that they were not your average tongs and that I'd probably like them back. So I guess she had been carrying them around in her truck, knowing that we'd eventually run into each other somewhere at some point. Good thing we decided to go to Brandt's for a night cap after all!

But the funniest part of this story is how Jason interpreted what happened. He saw Rhonda come in with the tongs. (He didn't see her leave the table next to us to go out and grab them.) He then overheard her saying, "Yeah, I've just been carrying them around in case I run into you." (He missed the part about her keeping them in her truck.) And then Jim told Jay, "You remember Rhonda, you came to her Halloween party with us a couple years ago."

Sooo, in Jay's mind, Rhonda had been physically carrying around my tongs everywhere she went since that Halloween party two years ago. Walking around the mall, tongs in hand. Going to the movies, tongs in hand. Going out to the pub, tongs in hand. You get the picture. He was so confused and blown away by the preposterousness of it all until we clarified. Hilarious!

Thorn
My mousy roots. Thank goodness for hats! I'm sure everyone thinks that I've just been trying to be fashionable lately, when really it's because I'm trying to hide the unsightly scene at my crown. I know I've mentioned it before, but my hair seems to grow unnaturally fast, which is less of a blessing than pain in the ass for someone with such an undesirable natural hair colour. My natural colour falls somewhere between dirty blonde and ashy brown.  It cannot be described by CMYK. It belongs to its own colour chart, YUCK.

I bought some dye a week ago, and even though it's this new kind that only takes ten minutes to set, I still haven't found/made the time to do it yet. Actually, I should probably be doing it now instead of blogging, shouldn't I?

Rose
Since we've made such great headway with the script over the last two days, yesterday I finally went out for a walk. And it was a fabulous walk indeed. I spend some time sitting on the park bench by the pond, thinking and kind of meditating, even though that wasn't my original intent when I first sat down to watch the turtles, ducks n' geese.

It all started when I began focusing on the present moment and just being in the here and now. As I got up to walk, I began to imagine that everything around me was created with intent, as though the path were an elaborate exhibit in an art gallery.

For instance, the sun had been set to a specific degree of warmth. The creek had been adjusted to a particular speed, so it would babble with an intentional rhythm. The various birds had been programed to chirp at designated intervals. Each piece of gravel on the path had been placed by hand, and the occasional sections of mud or soft earth were there to create distinct sensations as you walked across them. I even imagined that the people who passed me on the path were all actors part of the exhibit.

I found that as I walked, my pace slowed dramatically, and that I even stopped once or twice to pay more attention to the little details surrounding me. The shapes of leaves. The colour of branches. The texture of the earth beneath my feet.

I know I probably sound crazy, but by looking at the world around me as some kind of elaborate art display, I couldn't help but notice the absolute perfection and I felt the most incredible uplifting calm in each moment of 'now'. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I think I might go out and do it again today if I get the chance.

Thorn
In the plaza across the street, the owners are not renewing the lease for the Movie Gallery or the Dollar Store. Instead they are going to knock out the wall between these two shops and lease the massive space out to the Great Canadian Dollar Store.

Fine. Fair enough. They're obviously well within their rights to do so, but what really sucks about this decision is...

1. Now we have to drive to Blockbuster to rent movies instead of just walking across the street. And after almost two years of listening to their confusing sales pitches (based on some sort of movie points system that none of their employees or even the management can explain very clearly), we finally gave in and purchased their special monthly movie package to save money and now they're suddenly closed.  Hopefully we can get a refund. (They said some info will be posted on their door....)

2. The German gentleman, Sig, who owns the Dollar Store will now be out of a job. This was a family business he started up when he moved to Kelowna about ten years ago.

Okay sure, I know one or two of you might argue that at least he's being replaced by the great "Canadian" dollar store, and therefore this is a good decision because it's at least a Canadian company. But really...  this is this man's livelihood. He might come from Germany, but he is a citizen now, and as Canadian as you or I.

Plus, he is just the sweetest, sweetest man! He often tucks a little something extra in my bag for free whenever I spend between $15 - $20.  He almost reminds me of my Grandpa Junop in that way. You couldn't leave the house without him running around trying to find something else to send home with you, be it a pad of paper or a can of Zoodles.  Like Grandpa, Sig will always say, "Just wait here a minute..." and then he'll rush off into the store for a moment or two, grab something but won't show it to me, and slide it into the bag. He'll always say "Just a little something else for Halloween/Christmas/your party/your niece's birthday/insert occasion here."

I just feel so bad for him. I hope he can find another location to open his shop.

Rose
This is stupid... but Jim's beard.  I've never been a fan of facial hair, but over the last couple weeks, he grew a beard and I love how he'll tackle me and rub it against my face. Ha ha. It's tickly and prickly and it really makes me laugh. It even makes me laugh just thinking about it. Of course, the thorny side of this rose is that his whisker rubs always leave a red rash on my cheek. That part is not so nice.

I seem to remember hating whisker rubs when my Grandpa Krieger or Dad would threaten me with them when I was a little kid.... or were those indian burns? Either way, they always left me running. Guess it's different when it's your husband.

Thorn

Last week, just before bed as I was putting the toothpaste away, my elbow accidentally knocked a candle off my counter. Fortunately it wasn't lit, but the glass sure did smashing job of shattering into tiny little bits all over the bathroom floor. Blegh. Nice. That's exactly what everyone feels like doing at quarter after twelve.... sweeping up tiny shards of glass. 

Anyhow, so far, so good... the soles of my feet haven't encountered any searing pain lately or suddenly started bleeding, so I think it's safe to assume I got 'em all.

Rose

My sister got a new job that pays well and is not at the mall! (Where she's been working since she was 14.) But that's only part of this rose. 


Since I don't think I'll be able to get back home this year (at least it's not looking like I will at this point.... time will tell), I suggested that she use this lull between jobs to take advantage of WestJet's seat sale. I know I would if I could! Of course, Jim n' I will still be working over the next few weeks, but it shouldn't be nearly as intense as it has been. Plus, we work from home, so it's not like she'll be left alone all day or anything on the days we do need to get some work done. 


So, by the sounds of it, she just might make the trip! *fingers crossed!*

I'd love for her to come out here. She needs to get the fluck out of Pembroke for a while. (Not that Pembroke is the worst place in the world - it's really not. It's quite a lovely place to visit. It just hasn't been very good to her.) Anyhow, if anyone deserves a vacation, it's Amy. And if she's going to vacation anywhere, it should be here. Plus, a visit with Amy is so much more enjoyable when she's not at home. The Pembroke Amy and the Visiting Amy are two totally different girls. She is far more pleasant and relaxed when she's out of town. (Then again, who isn't more relaxed when they're on vacation? ;)

Thorn

Watching others struggle. Jim n' I harbour some mild guilt over the fact that we're getting to live out our dreams, and that our relationship comes so effortlessly.  We just feel like shit sometimes when people we know are struggling in one area of their life or another and may never get cut the same break. We like to imagine that someday we'll be rich enough to help those we love and care about achieve their dreams as well. Pay it forward...


And I guess that's it for another week or two!

Charlie Bit Me Again and Again

Okay, so when I first saw the Charlie Bit Me video last year, I became instantly addicted. I lost count of how many times I replayed it. I don't know why, but it struck me as the perfect combination of cute and hilarious. 






When I got tired of playing Charlie Bit Me, I moved on to the funky Charlie Bit Me Remix. I played it a couple times for laughs, although it was obviously not as great as the original.





But today.... today I saw the video that totally takes the cake. Charlie Bit Me Auto-Tune. I've listened to it about a dozen times in between writing scenes. It's a quick 28 second fix to make me laugh... and I hate to admit that it's hooky lil' beat can get stuck in your head... then again, maybe I've just played it too many times. 





Okay, I know... I've got to get a life. 

My Cat Snores To A Catchy Beat

Why does time fly by like a bird, and yet progress crawls like a snail?

I have been working on the same page and a half scene for just over two and a half hours. It's not even one of our "difficult" scenes.

Jeeze Louise! (Obviously that's the censored version of what I'm really thinking....) At least we're both satisfied with it, and I finally have it at exactly a page n' a half. 

Not two pages. 

Not one n' three quarters. 

But exactly the wee bit of space alloted to get a ton of important info across -- a page and a half.

Today we returned to writing, but over the last two days, Jim n' I did a pseudo polish on the first half of the script. We are almost 6 pages over our estimated page count. If this is any indication of things to come, it means we'll be 12 pages over by the time we're done writing.  And subsequently, that means that we'll have to find a way to cut off 12 limbs. (I say "limbs" because they'll be painful cuts - we're already doing the best we can to keep everything as tight as possible.)

It's funny because writing (or at least writing a script) seems to be as much about what you remove from the page as it is about what you put on it.... if that makes sense?  By far, that the biggest challenge is keeping everything absolutely succinct, eliminating any widows, and saying as much as possible in as few words as possible.

I don't know if I make it sound easy (because a few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me that when I talk about making a movie, I make it sound as casual as picking up groceries), but it's really not... At least it hasn't been today.

Okay, my ten minutes are up... back to work. Fortunately, Donovan and Maggie have said all the words they needed to exchange in the park scene, and so now Don n' I are off to get into some trouble at the grocery store.

And hey, look at that, this post doesn't sound nearly as bitchy as it started out! See... it's just like I was saying, it's as much about what you remove from the page as what you put on it. ;)

(Also, yes, I realize that my title has nothing to do with what I wrote, but Emmy is totally sawing logs behind me to some weird rhythm, and I found it distracting when I was trying to think of a title other than "Progressing Slowly".)