Stasis

I always thought when I got to this stage of the Women's Studies game that I would just have tons to blog about. However, that doesn't really seem to be the case. There's very little to report or pontificate on, though there's a lot of important (yet dreadfully boring) work being done. In a weird way, it's like it was back in the earliest days of pre-production: all paper work, phone calls, and planning for things to come.

Part of the strange stasis is the holidays, I think. Don't get me wrong. I actually like the holidays, but it seems there's an awful lot of impending travel, parties, and events to attend. My calendar is filed with places I have to be, but it seems very few of them have to do with the movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes it hard to get motivated sometimes. I do my best when I get my work engine cranked up for a long stretch. When every few days I have to stall and hitch and switch gears to something else, I feel like I have to get warmed up all over again. Right now, I'm simply trying to get as much of my life on auto-pilot as possible, simply so I can leave it behind for a few days.

Also, there's a lot of "catch-up" to do as far as the "business" side of show business is concerned. My co-producer, Cindy Marie Martin, has spent a goodly portion of the past few weeks paying invoices and trying to balance the books. (I want to help. Really I do. However, I've realized that the best way to help is to simply stay out of her way unless she asks otherwise.) That need to catch-up also reaches into our personal lives. Things like my environment, my pets, and my personal relationships have suffered a bit during the past few months of struggling to get everything shot. Taking the time to give those aspects attention has been important.

Another larger part of it is waiting for the first rough cut which is scheduled to be delivered in my hot little hands five days from the time of this writing. There's not much I can do until I can see the footage all slammed together as something that resembles a movie. It's going to be extremely exciting to see it for the first time, and I'm sure next week's blog with be filled with all my positive energy over what the movie can be. But right now, it's kind of like a long Christmas Eve. In the back of my head is the constant mantra of "Going to see the rough cut. Going to see the rough cut." It makes it kind of hard to focus on anything else.

And let's face it, part of it is pure simple "burn out." That's not to say I'm sick of Women's Studies, but after the past six months of near constant work, worry, and will, it's nice to have nothing immediate to worry about. Frankly, I need to recharge my batteries a little bit. Cindy and I will get a very long overdue vacation here in a few weeks where I plan to do just that.

Stasis is a nice change though. There's a feeling of accomplishment that's been nice to ride out. Hard roads are ahead, make no mistake, but that's for the future. For this brief moment, everything is as it should be.