View from the Couch

I've been very depressed lately about a number of things. The weather is awful.  Yeah, I know I live in Oregon and we have a lot of rain, it's a rain forest for god's sake.  But this year is the worst I can remember for some time.  Today is JUNE 9th.  The Junior Rose Parade is today.  All the years we lived in the Hollywood district, the Junior Rose parade meant fun and sun and kids out in shorts and sandals.  The BIG PARADE is Saturday. The pools are getting ready to open!   But it's 60 degrees and RAINING...torrents of rain.  I have friends who have natural swimming holes in their back yards now.  Not that they asked for them. No matter how hard I am saving, I can't seem to get to a place where I can relax about money.  No matter what I do with my diet and exercise, I am ballooning up, not going down.  No matter how hard I avoid the news, it finds me and it depresses me even more.  And even when I think I'm clearing ...

Can I send this to every education administrator on the planet??? We are starving our souls. Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the teaching revolution! | Video on TED.com

 This has been a frustrating week for me.  It started out wonderfully.  My beloved sisters and my niece Nikki spent Monday evening with me at dinner, followed by a fabulous pub quiz.  Tuesday, I was able to spend a little more time with them and with my niece Dawn.  I love these ladies.  They make me laugh until I hurt.  We talk about important stuff and silly stuff.  We praise our children and share our griefs.  And I teared up trying to explain to my sister Judie how I am at a loss of how to tell my beautiful daughter how proud I am of her.  It just doesn't seem enough to say, "I knew you could do it.  You are amazing.  Your gift is to be the light of my life."  I don't know what to say. After a stop in at Papa Haydn's for a light nibble and a tasty dessert, I opted to take mine home.  Chocolate Truffle Cake.  And I couldn't finish it.  I thought I was past this hurt.  I thought I was ready to move ...

I love TED Talks. It always gives me something to think about, wonder, contemplate and ultimately incorporate into my being. This one is especially telling as our "social networks" have become increasingly virtual and not actual. Yet the ties, at least in my experience, are no less important, influential and necessary to the health and happiness of our being. Enjoy. And thank you for being part of my network. I know I am better for it. Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks | Video on TED.com

In Act Two of My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle declares to Freddy Einsford-Hill that she's "so sick of words.  I get words all day through, first from him, now from you."  She want Freddy to take action - and "Show Me."  While I understand the sentiment of don't talk, show, I've never been sick of words.  I love words.  Words make me wet - to put it bluntly.  I love to read them, hear them, sing them, write them, play with them, invent them.  Words, words, words....fabulous words. So why is it that when I commit myself to sitting down and writing something specific - using my words to unleash my soul - that I suddenly can't find them. Or they seem foolish and empty.  Or the universe steps in and says...no, you don't get to be a writer. I've called myself a writer for years.  I've written poems that I think are bloody fantastic.  I've written short stories and treatments and short plays and outlines and ideas and blog posts unt...

I absolutely love this. And it's why I do theater, too. If you tell the truth, people may not like you, they may not be grown up enough to know the truth, but it will move you. Patsy Rodenburg: Why I do theater | Video on TED.com

Script Frenzy that is. You may remember that I started to write a novel back in November with National Novel Writers Month .  Well, that didn't work out so well.  Got sick, had mother issues, etc.  Well, now, it's Script Frenzy , brought to you by the same organization.  This is a somewhat smaller, and if the group I met on Sunday are any indication, more extroverted set of writers.  Perhaps it's because there are so many options for Script Frenzy.  Your writing can be a play, a screenplay, a treatment or episode for a TV series; even a graphic novel.  And that means you can have rom com to horror on one side of the table, sci-fi to situation comedy on the other.  There's even one woman writing a musical!! And her collaborator lives on the other side of the country! That's the other difference with Script Frenzy - you can write as a team or a group.  Because we all know that scripts come in all shapes and sizes...just like peopl...