Finishing the Hat

This morning, I checked off several - but not all - of the daily morning tasks that keep me moving forward.

• Got out of bed promptly.  Check!
• Get ready for work. Check!
• Eat a healthy breakfast of ~300 calories (Check - today, a boiled egg, grapes and crumpets.)
• Pack three healthy lunch-snacks of ~250 calories (No check. Work lunch meeting today... but my lunch groceries, including my favorite edamame salad, awaits tomorrow.)
• Slice up the limes and tear up the mint for today's carafe of water. (Half-check. I have a large bottle of water with me, but I need to wash my dishes and bring the lime/mint tomorrow.)
• Enter today's chow into LiveStrong's Daily Plate (check still pending)
• Write with Tom for 1 hour in the morning.  Extreme Check!  It went very well, and we finished a great new Bubble Gumshoe scene. Almost done with Episode 2.
• Wash dishes.  Ha ha, when do I ever get to this one?  I know the answer: when I don't go online in the morning.

I am so excited and proud to see what is going on in my group of friends these days.  We were, for a long time, what you might call... "creative appreciators."  Let's go to a concert, see a play, talk about a painting.  But we were also what you might call "shadow artists."  Wishing - even if some of us didn't realize it - to be part of the creative origins, instead of on the appreciating end.  I'm not sure how it changed. These things happen slowly under the surface and only appear as a sudden landslide.  But it has changed, for certain.  Here are some of my friends' recent projects that thoroughly inspire me:

• Every time I hear a song from my friend Jesse's new label, LA's Fine, the music is equal parts catchy and surprising. Jesse's long history with the music industry - and his passion for really great work - makes him the perfect man for this job.  Over the last several years of our friendship, I cannot count the times he's sat me down to listen to "this great song."  Every one of them has been a gem.  And now he is going to be able to do the same thing for a wider audience of people. Lucky, lucky people.
• I'm a silent movie buff already, so if I didn't know Donna, I'd still want to purchase her book, Rudolph Valentino: The Silent Idol - a labor of love I've been watching unfold as she's developed it.  I had the privilege of attending a screening of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at the Academy's Goldwyn Theater this year, where the noted film historian Kevin Brownlow recommended the book to an audience full of classy film nerds.  She's been well-reviewed by all kinds of exceptional people, and she deserves every great review.
• I can still remember hearing Lisa say that she wasn't a creative person - but nothing disproves that notion more than her jewelry company, Inspired Adornments.  Lisa's beautiful accessories are so elegant and unique.  I am proud to own (and frequently wear) one of her pieces, which was inspired by a vintage bakelite piece we fell in love with at an antique store.  Her business keeps growing and I can't wait to see the next piece she comes up with (and the next, and...)
• My oldest friend in the city, Audra, has always had a gift with words that I wished she would share with - well, everyone.  Now, in the face of recent loss, she has started a beautiful, fragile art/writing project called The Lonely Telegram.  I won't spoil the details, because it is a story that's best in the discovering - but I am moved and made more thoughtful with each new telegram.
• I've always known Matt to be extremely creative, but when he started regularly posting his photographs online, I was happy to see them! He has recently gathered his Disney photographs as a Blurb book, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.
• Whenever I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of Mark's illustrations, I was always impressed.  He is a talented comic book author and artist who doesn't often post his own work.  But recently he's started a daily illustration blog, drawing a new picture (themed A to Z) each day.  I've subscribed to him on my Google Reader, and now it's a daily pleasure to see what crazy thing he's up to today.