Through The Looking Glass

Ha ha, fooled you!

I really was planning to write every day, but I got blog-blocked. It’s like writer’s block but slightly less serious. Only slightly.

Last year I made some New Year’s Resolutions for the first time in approximately ever. Let’s revisit them, shall we?

I resolve to read blogs through a feed reader so that I waste less time online.

Er, well. I use a feed reader, anyway.

I resolve to spend the time I save writing, knitting, and playing with my son. Not in that order.

Ahem. Kind of.

I resolve to be nicer to my husband.

You will have to ask him, but I am pretty sure I failed.

I resolve to treat my body better and be in less pain by eating better, exercising, and trying to get some damn sleep.

This one is an overall success, but still very much a work in progress. I eat better (most of the time) and I occasionally go for walks or do some yoga. I have not gotten any sleep, but not for lack of trying.

I resolve to re-learn how to sew, and to make wonderful things.

Done! I totally owned this one! GO ME!

I resolve to enjoy every moment.

Work in progress. I’d say I’ve been more successful than not.

Stay tuned for my 2008 resolutions.

Gee, YA THINK?

Sam frequently stops in the hall outside our bedroom and stares at the poster hanging on the wall.

His interest started (that I know of) a few nights ago, when Will was shaving in the bathroom. Sam asked for me to pick him up and pointed to each Marx brother in turn. I named them, and he kept going, pointing to each again and again, changing the order in what I suspect was an effort to trip me up. (I admit it. Sometimes I confused Chico and Zeppo.) Every day since I have ‘caught’ him standing there several times. Staring reverently at the poster. Specifically at Harpo.

Sam has curly red hair. He doesn’t talk much, instead pointing to whatever he wants and opening his mouth wide to indicate that he would like to have it. He loves music and he loves ladies. I would just like to know whether he loved or emulated first. Is he behaving like Harpo or does he see in Harpo a reflection of himself? Either way, he has found a kindred spirit.

(This is what I got when I tried to get a picture of him with his mouth open. So you’ll have to imagine what that looks like.)

If your kid is hungry, try feeding him. You’re a genius.

Christmas was lovely. So lovely. Really it started on Friday, the Solstice, when we began opening gifts. We are not as impatient as all that, it’s just that the sheer volume had us a little worried about overwhelming a certain short someone, and we wanted to ensure that he could enjoy as many of his gifts as possible. (Also, we wanted to open some of our loot.) Spacing the presents out worked very well, and Christmas morning he opened the bulk of his gifts excited as could be, and was able to look at and play with each thing.

Top gifts include Sam’s new chair, his tug boat, a selection of wonderful books, and several wooden food sets. Two of the sets are the same, but we are keeping them both because there is nothing sweeter than Sam doling out an apple for each of us. And really, his favorite game is sorting and transferring. Perfecto! (If you are thinking that I really just don’t want to go to the store and make the exchange, you might be partly right. But you’d be just as right if you were thinking how greedy we are.)

In the afternoon some friends came over and we made pizza. The only bad part of the day came when we finished the last bottle of wine. (OK, it was also not thrilling that Sam couldn’t get to sleep. But we can hardly blame him after such an exciting day.)

I knitted my reward hat and it is perfect. Exactly what I wanted. I used this pattern and about half the ball of Manos del Uruguay. I’m not sure there’s enough left for a second hat but I think I’m going to try.

(My eyes are very green today. My eyebrows have taken over my face.)

And now I will write. I didn’t say as much the other day, because I wanted everyone’s honest opinions, but I’d already decided to finish the western as soon as the holiday bustling was over. It is funny — that is really the only project I felt hung up about. I finished a rewrite for hire (NOT for a signatory company) and only hung onto it until I’d received assurance the producers wouldn’t put us in a bad position by trying to sell it during the strike. We’ve talked over some other ideas. But for some reason I couldn’t convince myself to work on this particular script. I think it must be the timing — it was ready for me literally the day the strike started, and that created a mental hurdle for me. Whatever it was, I’m (mostly) over it.

Now if I could just get my brain to switch over from Holidaze to Work.

“Sammy, do you want to go see if Santa came?”

“No.”

“Do you want to go open presents?”

Sam runs into the living room and stops dead in front of the coffee table, piled high with gifts. Next to the table are his and Daddy’s chairs. On his chair is his new robe. We help him put it on (it lasts about three minutes before he overheats and shrugs it off) and he starts handing out presents. When he discovers a little toothbrush just for him he does a double-take.

I am not actually dreaming of a White Christmas. I am very happy to have this beautiful tree out my window.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! May your days be merry and bright, no matter the color of your Christmases.

me, before publishing last night’s post: What do you think?
him: It’s a good article. Wait, that’s not the right word. What do you call it?
me, glowing: Oh, you can call it an article. It makes my blog sound so important.

“I’m talkin’ about friendship. I’m talkin’ about character. I’m talkin’ about – hell. Leo, I ain’t embarrassed to use the word – I’m talkin’ about ethics.”

Miller’s Crossing is one of my favorite movies of all time. It follows the same basic story as Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars, Last Man Standing, and Boaz Yakin’s first movie, Fresh, which I have never seen but Will says was “fucking great.” And of course the story of a man playing two sides against each other comes from Dashiel Hammett’s book Red Harvest (though I am sure it may have been told prior to that, as well). Will and I have an idea for a modern retelling of the story, in a totally different setting than has ever been used. It might even (gasp!) be funny. Of course, it is one on a long list of ideas that may or may not ever come to fruition. And it’s not what I wanted to talk (type) about.

Will and I are a weird writing team in that we don’t do any writing together. Normally, we outline. We hash the story out until it can’t be hashed any further. Then Will does a draft, I take it and do a draft, and that is our first draft. Then we get notes from whomever, are embarrassed by our first draft, and do the whole thing again, usually (but not always) faster.

Our most recent project is a western. We are both madly in love with it and it came out of nowhere. Just as I believe with all my heart that Sam came into our family because he was meant to be with us, I believe that we were mean to write this script. Yes, I am aware of how incredibly hokey that is. In October, Will sent me a link to a wikipedia article about a gunfight that is not very well known. I gave it a cursory glance but really wasn’t sure what his point was. A few days later he mentioned an element of the story that I’d missed. I was… beyond intrigued. I was hooked. Two days later I had a completed outline. Two weeks after that Will had a finished draft. And the next day the WGA went on strike.

It is my turn to work my magic, and I have not been able to do it. There is no real reason for me not to. We are not members of the WGA, and as long as we do not sell a script during the strike we are not scabs — even if we write it during the strike, we can sell it once a contract is signed.

Technically.

But I have this overwhelming feeling of solidarity. I would feel so dirty if I did any work during the strike. I come from a union family and I am incredibly pro-union. Or at least pro- the idea of unions. But that’s a tangent I needn’t go off on just now.

Ethically, can I finish this script? Without my contribution the draft is not usable. With it, I am positive this script will go somewhere. Nowhere very lofty, since westerns are out of favor for some retarded reason. But it would get us meetings, something our Sci-Fi/Action script is not doing any longer. And with any luck it would get made, and damn it I want to see this movie so bad.