How I Did

Tonight I ushered out the old year in the company of friends. Sitting by the fire in the lovely McKnight district, sipping a glass of fizzy cava, beating the pants off of the unbeatable Dan at Scrabble, I reflected that it had been a good year. Sometime around October, I mislaid the napkin on which I had written my resolutions, but pas de problème, as I had digitally captured it for posterity back in January.

Here's how I did:

1) get in the movies. Well, I guess I did that! I had purposely left it open, but ended up doing one of just about everything I had imagined, and more. By March, I had been an extra in a movie starring Kevin Spacey. I followed that up with several more movies, TV shows, and an ebay commercial. I got my car in a movie. I joined a screenwriting group and started writing a screenplay. I went to screenings and industry workshops and film festivals. I met lots of movie types, from actors to directors to casting assistants to writers to Cameron Diaz's espresso guy. I had a blast and I learned a LOT.

2) publish wine article. Did that one, too. In fact, I published two. And got paid to do it. I toasted the old year and the new tonight with the Segura Viudas Brut Reserva cava I've been recommending in print, buying for myself, and talking everyone I know into trying.

3) jazz. I listened to jazz, read up on jazz, acquired a bit of jazz for my cd library, and attended a jazz festival. So, yes, I did that.

4) finish novel. OK, here it gets rocky. I did plenty of writing, but not the novel. So that's ongoing.

5) publish book. That one's stalled, too. The book is written, but I've got another project ongoing with the publisher, and he won't talk to me about the book until I finish the *** (I don't even want to write the word). Can you say "procrastinate"?

6) Lew Hunter workshop. That's a screenwriting workshop, which would have been fantastic to attend, but it's pricey and I couldn't justify the expense. I joined the Northampton Screenwriters Workshop instead, which is much less intensive, but still extremely helpful. I'm not giving up on Lew Hunter, though.

7) Europe. Did that. Le Mont St-Michel, super-hip Antwerp, ever-lovely Brussels. I wish I could've gone to Europe with my mother--she would have loved it, too, I'm sure--but her spirit lives on for me in Belgium. And I've been dreaming about that big rock in the Atlantic Ocean since high school. I still can't believe I finally climbed it.