It's that time of the Play again

What to call that damn thing that I've just been refering to as 'the surfer play' for almost a year now. While that moniker does have a ring to it, and the play is about surfers, someone its feels like its not quite a real title. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Its a very realist magical realism play, emphasis on the realism and everyone is a surfer. Takes place Venice Beach, LA.

So, the list thus far:

Floating
Drifting
Ripin'
Ripin' (or the surfer play)
This Play is about Surfers (seriously, dude!)
You know, the one with the surfers. And the thing.

As you can see I've been really inspired in terms of titles.

Caribbean

The five of us in a clean Mexican tourist port. Look how santized our surroundings are. Just look. We did get a chance for a quick tour through where the people of Cozumel live. I wish I could have walked through though, it's hard to take photos from a moving bus.

GIRLS ON A BOAT!!! Writers Gone Wild! Look at them they're going CRAZY. on the inside. can't you tell?

I'm sure this picture will look better without me blocking the view and mucking up the image.

Much better. Isn't that a lovely beach. Cozumel folks. Paradise Beach. Just after all the tourists left and the beachside bars shut and the employees when home. So it truely was beautiful.

Caves in Cozumel. Jules, Resa and I were shown these caves on our "Jungle Hike" to explore "Mayan Ruins". Which amounted to a long walk through an overgrown fruit ranch to look at piles of rocks. Mostly disappointing. The only thing we were able to bring back from that trek were hundred of mosquito bites. So I guess it wasn't a total loss.

This was the one pile of ruins that was actually rather interesting. As you could still see the stairs and the shape of the structure. But you could also see the force of the jungle claiming back what rightfully belongs to the wild. The King James bible says "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19). But in truth we are not dust, we are life and to life we will return. tucked into the folds of the earth we move towards to light stretching new leaves sunward wriggling new toes in the same earth.

This truck made me think of Cuba.

PIE ON A STICK!!! What more could you possibly want in life? I mean really? Really? If you have a thought spill it, cause I think I could now die happy. Its actually frozen key lime pie covered in chocolate on a stick. Ummmm Pie on a Stick. I'm also in Key West, so Key Lime pie is absolutely appropriate. As a fan of pie in general, I'm not all that keen on Key Lime pie to be honest, and I was that entire piece. The whole shabang on a stick. I ate it. This girl. First Key Lime pie I've ever one that too. Usually I take a bite and decide "nope not really me cup of tea". At which point my mother reminds me that I'm tasting a piece of pie, which is why it's nothing like a cup of tea. But if you're ever in Key West, seriously, don't resist being the tourist, try the pie.

This movie theatre was so cute I had to take a picture. I wish I had had time to look inside. It just makes me want to pinch it's cheeks.

Three of my travelling friends standing at the Southern most point of the United States. Nothing but ocean for ninety miles until you run ashore on Cuba. At which point you quite to yourself an appropriate line from Monty Python "run away!"

Key West cocks. That's right. I said it. They have a special kind of cock in Key West. They're protected. These cocks don't get caught, shot and eaten. No cream of cock soup is made of these birds. No way, no how. They are left to their own devices all day. Just left to peck around willy nilly as they chose, chasing chicken tail or pecking at holes in the ground. Lucky son of a cock.

Dear Blog,

Oh, I'm so sorry I have ignored you. I have been much too wrapped up, I in other types of words. You see, I discovered reading for pleasure. Its this thing people do when they don't have books forced upon them. They read whatever they want. As fast or slow as they please. I'm having the most marvellous time. But, dear Blog, I promise, I will return to you. I have so many wonderful thought that this reading for pleasure has sparked in my brain. Soon I'll need to share them with someone. And, sweet Blog, why not you?

Two Weeks and Counting

I've officially been a school free adult for two weeks now and what do I have to show for it?

Well, my work keeps paying me. That's something.

I typed up a scene for my new play and successfully changed all the character's names.

Next week I'm going on a cruise to the Caribbean with my best friends.

I suppose this is adulthood. Life just keeps rolling along, each day passing and being forgotten. Part of it is releaving. No deadlines to worry about. No silly writing assignments meant to stretch my brain. No unsolicited brain stretching of any kind. Lots of reading for pleasure. Lots of sitting home in my pajamas because I don't want to take the bus into the sitting. Lots of free time to let my brain wander over the problems of any of the plays I've ever written (On which note, I think I finally solved a massive problem in a play I wrote four years ago. Now, I'm deciding if the play is worth rewriting at all).

I suppose this is a really long winded way of saying that my life is pretty boring at the moment.

The First Day of the rest of my Life

I turned in my master's thesis on Wednesday. Printed it out, bound it together and mailed it to Scotland. I'm longer a student. Everything I've known for the last twenty years of my life is no more.

It is the most liberating feeling ever.

Despite that I know I'll go back for a doctorate eventually - the most stressful moments of my masters degree are the ones that motivate me towards the PhD - but I can't leave NYC to do it - I feel like a person, in the most complete sense of personhood. If anyone understands that.

I feel free to write whatever I want. I feel some how more... there's not a word for it. I feel like in situations where before I thought I'd be dismissed as a young student trying to find herself, now they might take me serious. Now I'm ready to let them take me seriously. I'm ready to stand up and tell them that I do have something to offer them and that no they will not find a better candidate. I'm the woman for the job. I've seen my friends all around me being real people, being trusted - they've done away with those little girl smiles that get them in doors - now they look that man straight in the face and tell them what's what, without blinking and then they go for it. I'm ready to do that too.

I'm ready to call literary directors and ask if I can take them to lunch and pitch them my play. Ask them what they can do for me, where they think I should point my career's compass. And then I'll do it. Gone are the days when I thought my plays would be swept off their feet and on to Broadway. I'm not usually that naive, but I can dream. Bring on the cold calls and the short lunches. Bring it.

This is the first day of the rest of my life. I'm going grab it and squeeze every piece of it until I have all I want.