happy new year!

i kicked it off right this year. i went to times square– really the only way to begin a new year. the energy was magnetic & i plan to kick off the year with this kind of bang whenever possible. whew- and yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

new year’s goals? yes, of course. personal stuff first: get married– yes, finally PLAN this just-for-family wedding to my ebony king. (yes, patranila, i will get a wedding planner to HELP me.) i will also hopefully continue to learn that help is not a 4-letter word. (well it is, but you get my drift.) i’m also going to continue to improve my financial management, and most of all, devote my time to those closest to me who i have neglected terribly for about 18 months. i’m distancing myself from the spiritual vampires to spread love where it comes back to me. i have a beautiful fiancee (thanks for everything, baby), supportive parents, bro and sis, along with siblings to get to know, and my soul people to nourish. thank you god/dess. i’m also going to lose this 20 pounds that i put on in the past 2 years while also neglecting myself.

i felt like i was in a new career with much to learn and much to prove, so there was no time for frivolities, like combing my fro or drinking enough water, because i had to just get my work to a place where it could produce an income. what i’ve learned is that these are not frivolities, and i deserve as much attention as i lavish on my career. i mean, there were many hours when i sat editing and wouldn’t get up to get water because i felt like i needed to just make my movie. this is not focus, ladies and gentlemen, this is masochism, and i am opting out of it. truthfully holla back if you’ve ever felt yourself emerging victorious from a nervous breakdown when you didn’t even know that you had one, and still are not quite sure what a nervous breakdown is. in 2004, an objective is fun. jeez, fun. yes, i will still work hard, but i will also play hard and enjoy my magnificent new pink & purple office. (yes, the bachelorette pad in el barrio is no more.)

alrighty then, let’s get to turf i’m more comfortable with- earning the magnificent new pink & purple office. well strike that, because i do deserve it already. let’s rephrase that– doing the work that i came to this planet to do. knives, knives, knives in my side. i need to rebuild the movie after a devastating computer crash, and then get it off to be color corrected, sound mixed and off into the world of small, personal, social issues movies that as one viewer put it “women and other people need to see immediately.” (thanks lady in the grey sweater.) i’ve also been commissioned already for my next feature project, a topic/story that i am THRILLED about with a very magical sister friend who i am equally thrilled with– much more to come. AND what’s presently on my desktop is the berlinale– berlin’s international film festival. i’ve been selected as a fellow for their talent campus & will be directing a 5 minute short for german tv while i’m there.

i am very siked (i never spell it “psyched” as it belies the 8th grade origins of the word) about PINK, my school project for this semester, a mixed media artist’s book. i look forward to exhibiting it when i get back to vermont. (although i look less forward to the critiques.) i’m also siked about about the gift, the book project with my girl z, let’s get it out into the world already.

life is meant to be lived, and to quote martin lawrence (now there’s a sentence i would’ve bet anything i’d never say), “i wanna ride this thing ’til the wheels fall off.” auf wiedersehen & gutes glück in 2004!