thankful 4 the owl

Was on the balcony, ruminating. The marathon was over, so I finally let it happen. I'd been repressing, hm, everything since I don't know when. In some ways September 9th, the closed reading. I felt accomplished already once we'd finished, I walked around the block alone, and I started gathering the binders. But then MS had to walk across the circle and grab my wrist. She had to say, "I think you'd make a great ____." She said it winkingly--but also a little brave.

But so many other things happened from then until now. A wedding bus with the bride's parents and little else. Visiting the marshmallow, taking her to The Cheesecake Factory and Walgreens. The Deal. The Rep. The Last Breakfast. Lady Gaga. Karaoke with the gals.

Certainly, certainly, though, I've repressed It All since rehearsals began in The Space. November 10th. That was after weeks of rewrites and wandering around Michaels for props and buying the chime block from Guitar Center and commissioning the wands. Anyway, the point being, I'm aware I simply banished any bodily need for a week straight. And then what happened is I slowly slogged through the adrenaline from performing and eventually, suddenly, my entire body collapsed. This happened to be at Hearst Castle.

Luckily after an emergency Diet Pepsi and bag of salt and vinegar chips, I was able to continue on the mini vacation with gusto! And I was able to take in days of inn poolshine and fresh avocado toast and Sunset Boulevard ballads as the ocean blasted past. And then there was Sabrina Carpenter! Which required me to be a little lavender jumping bean. And then there was a brunch with my high school friend and Paranormal Activity downtown. Monday there were zooms and emails and a commercial deadline and a director meeting (feedback about the show). And THEN, at long last, there was the final thing on my calendar: a 6 AM zoom with the UK PR company Tuesday.

The meeting was very important and hinged pretty much entirely on me landing the pitch, which I did, despite having lost five pounds to stress. And what happened next! What happened next is I closed my computer and slept nearly all day! Shuffled out 4-5:15 and then had to lay down again.

But at around 10 I was on the balcony, ruminating. And then I heard someone else ruminating. An owl! With a very specific hoot. Hoo hoo h-h-hoo hoo hoo. The owl squawked it, so I mirrored back. A little later we repeated the song. I texted Puhg, "There's an owl hooting out here." So he came outside too.

For a long time there was silence. And then I saw the beauty take flight! It was kind of funny. Nothing swooping or majestic at all. Big white belly and thick feathers flopping branch to branch. Puhg missed it, so he stood looking into the dark a long while. Then he went inside, returning with the big black flashlight. "Let me see..." he said.

Puhg carefully aimed a beam at a branch and--! The owl! Was sitting right there! Big round eyes gazing directing into the light! We gasped. Very beautiful, very cute. "Hello!" we said! The owl blinked. We were waving and laughing. I got the sense the owl thought we were goofs. "Hello! You look very nice!" We called out. Owl could have flown away and didn't, which is why I think we may be friends. Puhg and I laughed and embraced and all the trees saw.

So Hollywood

 I've been desperate to blog lately, but I just don't have the time. Life for these past six months has simply never let up. I feel like I'm constantly sprinting--zooming through outrageous days at a breakneck speed.

There have been so many moments that fluttered around my head as I was slipping to sleep. "I should write today down," I barely conjure as my head crashes into the pillow. I want to set in stone that Friday I got super sweaty at a guild silent disco, sped home for a shower, attended a fancy girl lunch, blazed through work emails, sat in the hamster playpen at night. Or the day I met with a blind advocacy group at 8:30 AM to develop the new Blind B_rbie and zipped to the picket line and ran into friends and decorated cookies for AP's birthday and motored across town for a listening party and made it to heartbreak dinner with my friend getting divorced and walked home eating pizza from the to-go box, singing Reputation on the empty sidewalk. And I still want to write about my camp reunion and I still want to write about Japan and I still want to write about so so many things.

But for this particular post, what I want to write about is the most Hollywood moment. Two weeks ago I went to my friend's bachelorette party. There was drag brunch and a warm patio and activities and dancing and banners. We played a game called "dirty minds." We got a list of clues that could be construed as sexy, but we were supposed to think of an answer that was bland instead. This game was my jam. The group happened to be very industry-heavy. When the host announced I had won an exec across the circle shouted, "That's not fair! She's a writer! She's supposed to be on strike!" The agent chimed in, "Fine, she can win, but I get ten percent of her points." I thumbed over to my actual manager and said, "Actually, she does."

When the morning came, we were cleaning incense off your vinyl shelf 'cos we lost track of time again.