What were you doing five years ago?
- Good thing I keep a journal, or I couldn't answer this question. Living in Columbus, Mississippi while my husband was the Operations Group Commander for a pilot training base (attended a graduation every three weeks for the two years I was there.) Reflecting on turning forty. Homeschooling my kids (a short stint.) Trying to give up on being a writer and do something else. Reading What Should I Do with my Life? by Po Bronson. Also, Lying by Lauren Slater, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and the script for Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. (My reading life has gone downhill, for sure. Yesterday, I read InStyle: The Shape Issue.)
What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
- Help my daughter pack her car
- Walk the dog/myself for exercise
- Make non-creamy pasta salad for my son's crew team, and deliver it, along with a large cooler half-filled with ice
- Put myself back in write/work mode to tackle revisions
- Tell you guys that I'm going to SCBWI L.A. and that I would LOVE to see you there
- Popcorn
- Apple w/peanut butter
- Graham crackers dipped in milk
- Almonds
- Cheese of any kind/bread or crackers
- Go on long, outdoor adventure trips with my family
- Build a house with porches on every side
- Hire a gardener to create and maintain a gorgeous walking garden
- Fully fund the arts in as many schools as possible
- Have my own plane
- Worrying
- Leaving junk in my car
- Writing hunched over on the couch, instead of ergonomically at my desk
- Filing by piling
- Shoes
What are five places where you have lived?
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Okinawa, Japan
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Newport, R.I.
- Waitress: Pizza Hut, Cajun's Wharf, Williamsburg Hospitality House (breakfast shift--yuck)
- Historical interpreter, Colonial Williamsburg (I had a green dress with a lace-up vest and a purple one with hip hoops. And a wicker basket "purse.")
- Student work/study jobs: Research on Mennonite family records, and marketing for the Virginia Shakespeare Festival (free theater tickets!)
- Program Coordinator, USC Master's Degree in Systems Management program, Okinawa, Japan (free half of a master's degree!)
- Writer (no tips, costumes, free tickets or degrees. But the best job I've ever had.)
You, you, you, you....and you.
I'm glad you decided to not give up on writing.
ReplyDeleteI once saw Arcadia performed at the Clarence Brown Theatre---at UT, as you know---and it was so beautiful.
I love the funding-arts ideas in schools. Great way to spend your money, I think. I often dream of hitting it big and then, say, surprising my favorite theatre companies with a whole big bunch 'o' cash (not that I see theatre as much as I used to before I had kids, but I'll get back to it regularly one day).
Funding the arts is a great idea, Sara :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for playing.
What do you mean no costumes???
ReplyDeleteAnd how come we all worry so much??? Let's work on that one.
Yippee! I am glad you are going to LA also; I am looking forward to it much.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am also glad you weren't able to convince yourself to stop writing.
Mmm. Love me some Tom Stoppard. He can make me miss directing faster than any other playwright.
Bizarre. That was actually me commenting above. Not sure who Blogger thought I was there or why it suddenly changed my name to "who am I?"
ReplyDeleteThe technology. It baffles me.