Writers Write.

There seem to be two basic theories when it comes to writing and they are as follows:

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One: if you're not feeling particularly inspired or creative, then don't write. It's better than producing utter crap. Lord help you if people actually read it and think you are a terrible writer.


Two: even if you're not feeling particularly inspired or creative, even if it's raining outside and your favorite pen is out of ink, even if you have a toe cramp or you'd rather be doing something more intriguing like cataloguing your extensive stamp collection, write. For God's sake write. Free flow even if you feel like holding a pen is painful and sentences are coming together slowly and dreadfully four words at a time. Just keep going. You may read it later and think: "Wow, this is some hot garbage." Or you just may surprise yourself.


In the absence of consistent blog posts my rainbow colored composition notebook has gone with me everywhere. While some days on the train I would rather listen to music and fall asleep leaning on the person next to me, I write anyway. On my break when I would rather skip down to Corner Bakery and buy a monster cookie, I'll write instead. Slowly but surely, I think I'm having a break through. Words, ideas, plots, characters, they're all starting to form on the pages like some congealed primordial brain goop. It isn't pretty but it's mine, and it's coming together.


The best advice I can give you on my own theories of writing is that Writers Write. Regardless of how messy or nonsensical. If you want to be a perfectionist, become an editor.


Writers Write. Period.

Paris in the Rain

// 1 / 2 / 3 & 4 //

I have always loved the rain. Waking up to it hitting the roof, sloshing around in my red rain boots, and sharing some really great smooches as it comes pouring from the sky. Honestly nothing beats a kiss in the rain, just ask Gene Kelly. But sometimes I wish that my red boots, rainbow colored umbrella and soaking wet embraces could be in Paris for the day...

The Blues

Chicago is known for its bi-polar weather and wind that will knock you clean off your path, but what it's been known for lately is cranking out some grey and bitter days. On a daily basis I seek solace in going home, changing in to sweats as quickly as possible, and drinking hot tea in bed by the delightful radiator in my apartment that sounds like a VHS tape is being rewound. I close the curtains and the sound lulls me in to a warm dullness that blocks the wind and cold from entering my tiny sanctuary.


Today proved no different. I woke up, took a scalding hot shower, and shuffled around my apartment in my Minnetonka slippers lapping up coffee and zoning out in to my bowl of Chex. I started window shopping spring clothes online, then swimsuits, then airfare, and oh look! My debit card is already sitting on my bed! Must be fate. I book a spring flight for Atlanta and let the warmth spread over me and the muted Chicago sky fades to blue.

Oh my gosh, I am so freaking excited!

Monday

What did I say just a gosh darn week ago? Blog content is so hard to create when you're surrounded by gray slush and dropping temperatures. Luckily a few things have been ruling my world lately that have been pushing me full steam ahead. Those things are (in no particular order):

The arrival of Ms. Whiskey-Pants to Chicago on Saturday for RB's birthday. We are gonna tear. it. up.

Travel plans to see Ms. E in Atlanta and a potential road trip up to Nashville for the Color Run. Better dust off my running shoes.

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Lastly but not least-ly, Starbucks oatmeal. I was already under the impression that steel cut oats were just good for your soul, but I will plan my day around making it to the Starbucks on Michigan and Adams just to get a bowl of this chunky deliciousness. I realize, I have a problem.

What's getting you through your winter week? (9 weeks until Spring!)

Hurry Up and Wait

The blogosphere is rife with New Year's resolutions. Mostly, I think, because blog content is hard to create when you're three sheets to the wind on holiday spirit and trying to settle back in to your normal gloomy winter routine. Not only is it harder to get creative, but people need to invent something to look forward to to get them through winter: "I will lose weight!" So I can look good in a bikini that I will wear to the beach with my friends this summer...oh! Leftover Christmas cookies! But there is one particular thing that I find myself doing often and wish I could break the habit. A new year and a fresh start is as good a time as any to tackle it...

I've been accused of wishing my life away, and I am the first person to back those accusations. I am a total ace at wishing I was in some other part of my life. Before I moved to Chicago I remember thinking that once I was settled in I'll feel a wholeness. Like I was making my own life. My career would take off and I would be the adult I always dreamed of in elementary school.


I want to feel about my life now the way I feel looking back on high school: you don't want to go back, but the reflection lets you see how far you've come. That you are more the person that you are supposed to be. I want to recall with some strange fondness how crazy my life was. I moved to Chicago with a little bit of money, lived in a studio apartment, worked a couple of jobs (mostly in theatres at night), and had an amazing time. But now, I feel more like myself. Like the person I always knew I should be.


Let me reiterate: I'm not one to make resolutions in January since for the past two years I've had the __ Before __ list to contend with. But this year I just wanted to take the time to remind myself, even if it's only for this moment, to slow down. Stop wishing it was some other time or place and just enjoy what I have right now. Some day I might find myself wishing deeply for that wild time I spent independent in Chicago.

Fill In the Blank

I swiped bits and pieces of this survey from the Man Repeller (who had swiped them from Proust) quite some time ago and tried to answer the questions without giving it too much thought. I decided not to post it for whatever reason and just found it in my drafts. Since the answers still ring true months later I figured I would post. Feel free to copy and paste in the comments, I'd love to hear your answers.

Your favorite virtue.
Honesty

Your favorite qualities in a man. 
Strong, sensitive, thoughtful, understanding

Your favorite qualities in a woman. 
Kind, comfortable, strength, 

Your favorite occupation.
Arts, working with people

Your chief characteristic. 
Humor & Stillness

Your idea of happiness. 
Busy, caring for others, loving

Your idea of misery.
Isolation

Your favorite color and flower. 
Green & Snap Dragons

If not yourself, who would you be? 
A style icon, writer, parent

Where would you like to live? 
Somewhere warm and inspiring

Your favorite painters and composers.
I tend to like the painters and composers I know most about because I can relate to their work on a more emotional/human level.

Your favorite heroes/heroines in real life.
Those that are extremely flawed but driven by passion to do what is right

Your favorite heroes/heroines in fiction.
See Above.

Your favorite food and drink.
Popcorn and sparkling wine

Your favorite names.
Archer, Rowan, Leigh, Jack

Your pet aversion.
Cats, but only because I can't pet them (allergies)

What characters in history do you most dislike?
People who ignore the rights and needs of others

What is your present state of mind?
Focused on maintaining a calm exterior

For what fault have you most toleration?
Indecisiveness or the unwillingness to make a choice

Your favorite motto.

"Eagles May Soar, but weasels don't get sucked in to jet engines" 

Threads

Never mind that I don't have the time, means, or necessity to go buy a new dress for New Year's. Remember that oh so distant promise I made to myself? Gosh darn it, sometimes a girl just needs a reason to buy a new dress. Can I get an amen? Thank you.

I picked it up at Urban Outfitters  mere hours before heading out for the night, or rather, Mom picked it up. I had showed her the dress online before and she did. not. like. it. I wanted to try it on just to show her how cute it would look, and it really did. I fell in love. As fancy as the frock is, it spent some time on the Chicago red line, in a dive bar that played southern rock revival, to a theatre where Jameson was spilled on it and finally it took a ten dollar cab ride home at three in the morning. All in all it was everything a good New Year's dress should be: sparkly, sexy, and comfortable enough to fall asleep wearing it at the end of the night. Plus...

I regret this facial expression.

Look at the back! I had to talk myself in to taking the sweater off at some point, Chicago is cold in case you haven't heard, but it was too fantastic not to. I can't wait to make up a reason to wear it over the summer.

In Take

These past couple weeks have been quite the whirlwind. Closing a show, working on a new one. Saying "hello" to old friends and saying "goodbye" just as quickly. It figures that it would take a nasty cold/flu combo to knock me out right as I was getting back in to the swing of my old routine. This holiday season I've been burning the candle at both ends so I was bound to fall off the horse at some point. Now I have time to catch up on blog content, marathon Slings and Arrows and hack up a lung today. Don't you wish you were so lucky?