once upon a time...

there was a girl who...
just kidding, maybe you've noticed i've been gone awhile? i've just completed the 3 week intensive screenwriting class at the film school in seattle, a course that ran from 9-9pm, mon-fri, and most of the day on saturdays. my boys got a good long dose of no mom around, lots of video game time, and a consistent diet of cereal and macaroni and cheese apparently! ha ha! and i was in overdrive. i got three weeks of information input overload, a heavy dose of perspiration and inspiration, a notebook full of notes, friendships forged, lessons learned, emotions raked over the coals, oh yes, it was a bucket of laughs! (and tears.) now i'm sitting here, back in my usual quiet, trying to ignore the laundry and the dishes, and wondering how to implement all that i have learned. i'm gonna be sitting here for awhile, i'm thinking. we have been poked, prodded, implored: taught not to wait for inspiration to strike (which has always been my preferred method of composing) but to be dutiful in our writing habits: write everyday. practice practice practice. of course, easy advice can be handed out any day of the week, but after enduring 3 weeks of this onslaught to all the senses (i hear habits are formed in 2) one would hope we get the message. that artists don't become artists by picking up paint and splashing it onto the canvas. (alas, also my preferred method... what is this saying about me?) -that before you can break the rules and go all abstract, first you must learn the rules. there is a method to the madness. and there are is a TON of stuff to know about writing a screenplay, none of which involves just sitting at the computer with an idea and typing. ah, crap. "ideas are a dime a dozen, but execution is everything." it comes down to HOW to create and tell a good story, how to create interesting complex characters. process process process. hard discipline. acting is rehearsing. writing is re-writing.

now i have lots of little voices in my head.
let's see if i can get anything out on paper...

starting over

apparently, i took a break.

when i look back, it shows i averaged about 3 blogs a month in 2007 and 2008. but in 2009, i only blogged 3 times. total. ugh.

i've made no resolution for 2010.
january is always a time of reflection for me anyways, without the stress of resolutions that i may not keep (that will only serve to bum me out later). but, i would like to get back into writing more, so with that, i will say: i'll try.

a lot happened in 2009 that i have not written about: francis' terrible end of 5th grade and his seeming never-ending bout with being bullied, his first camp experience in summer (which he loved), greg's and my little get-away trip to miami (unbeknownst to us at the time: the start of hurricane season), the start of middle-school for francis, greg being sent to beijing, china twice for work, the second time in november with us joining him, me flying home in october to be with my parents for my dad's (successful!) heart surgery, flying home for christmas in december, the first time in 3 years all the siblings and spouses and grandkids, and great-grandma were all together under the same roof! it was grand. and there was snow...

so yes, it's been a busy year.

and now i'm back home in seattle; it's been gray for days, and i'm looking ahead to this year. sadly, eagerly awaiting the end of 6th grade. francis isn't having the best of time making friends in his new school. he is often overwhelmed by his schoolwork. many boys his age are strutting, trash-talking, girl-watching, cussing fools, and thankfully, he's not quite there yet. which makes the fitting in tough. he does like band though, and practices his trumpet with gusto. i've already started off the year with some accomplishment: i ordered (finally) some prints on snapfish from our miami trip. starting off small. now all i have to do is china and our europe trip. hopefully before francis graduates. now there's a goal...

just listening to ella fitzgerald on pandora radio. had far-away friends over for coffee this morning. having nearby friends over for pizza and wine tonight...
really, i just try to get thru one day at a time. i know i grumble about the gray, but if i can laugh or smile at least once in the day, i'm doing pretty fine...

i know, i know...

i have not been around on this for quite some time, and i have been reminded and coaxed and urged. quite frankly, the days continue to be gray, and there's not much to write about, or rather, that i feel like writing about. i feel like the pictures i'm taking are the exact same pictures i took last year, and the things i wanted to accomplish by now (mainly: detailing our trip to europe and getting it in "blurb" book form) have not yet come to pass, and i disappoint myself in the lack of accomplishment and self-motivation. i feel like my creative bird has flown the coop. not to sound completely depressed, i'm not. just going thru a writer's block, actually, not even a block. "block" would imply the desire to write, but with no words coming. but lately there hasn't even been the desire to write. just to hibernate...
but spring is coming, trees are blooming, and i hope to crawl out soon.
thank you for the encouragement!
xo rachel

mozilla blues

so i've been trying to get this thing started for awhile now. and as you can see, there's not much here. it's been hard trying to write. for one thing, the gray pushes down on my eyelids and forces me to take a nap. for another thing, i've been reading alot of great books. and for a final thing, our computer has been acting up in a most confusing manner that has not only baffled me, but has baffled the husband. one browser eats things and the other freezes everthing. specifically, the main problem is that when i'm trying to upload pics from my phone, the computer "encounters an error" and shuts down. and when i'm trying to upload pics from the computer to this site, everything disappears. every window that i have pulled up, looking at, multiple pages, like a sneeze, they just: ach-oo! right off the screen...and then i have to reboot.
it is most tiring.
so, that, coupled with all my napping and reading has left me with little to write about.
but i will tell you that i recently sent my mom a web-link to my friend josh's fiance's blog, about her travels and trials in bolivia. my mom needed my dad to help her look at it, and she said, and i quote: " who is mozilla firefox? is that her name?"
i wish i could have been there to see the look on my dad's face as he pondered the idea of josh marrying a girl named mozilla firefox.
i have a name for mozilla firefox, but it's not a nice one, so i won't say it...at least not here...