Note from the Founder--Our beloved Anna Arnett is retiring from ANWA Founder & Friends to tackle her own blog head on. Our new blog team member is Kirsten Millsap:
Ask anyone who knows me...they will tell you I am a certified workaholic! In my 41 years of life, I have pursued careers in acting and directing, dancing and choreography, singing and songwriting, painting and sculpting. I was in a constant state of trying something new, and then beating it to death. All of these things came easily to me, and perhaps I was getting a little too comfortable; because all of the sudden...I'm hit with the insane desire to write a book. And you know what? It's NOT that easy! And to make matters worse--apparently--I lack the drive to finish even ONE of the four books that I have begun...(that's right...I said, "FOUR" books! I have now become a nightmare-mixture of a workaholic and a fickle slacker.)
What gets in my way, you ask? Facebook. Facebook gets in my way. As does the internet. My cell phone. My eight year old and my 41 year old. And food....I get the munchies and then comes the inevitable: a trip to the fridge which invariably means a drive to the grocery store or fast food restaurant, because someone forgot to go grocery shopping. Six hours later, I remember that I was writing, but realize it's time for scriptures and prayer...darn! I resolve to be better the next day, (but I never am) and the tap-dance continues...I can work around the other distractions--just not food-related ones.
But I believe I may have had a break-through, (in the form of my bathroom scale which told me I was getting fluffy) and so I have embarked upon the HCG diet. For the next 26 days I will be existing on 5oo calories and pregnant women's urine (Ok...people who know me will also tell you, that as a confirmed germ-a-phobe, it is indeed very odd that I would ingest such a thing, but I can safely assure you that it has been refined, cleaned and...and...ok. Never mind. I'm not going to go there. If you want to know more about it, you'll have to Google it.) I will now have to find another reason to live. Another thing that makes me happy...hence; my breakthrough.
What else can I do but write? I am always at my best when I am suffering. Most of my music is written when I'm suffering, and I sing better when I'm suffering...more passion...more conviction. Actors of the Stanislovsky method make themselves suffer before acting...
So, with nothing to do but wait out my 26 day sentence, (while my hypothalamus rewires my brain's attitude towards nummies) I feel a fit of inspiration coming on...Oh I know I will still hear the siren call of my fridge...but as with anything else in my life...I will do this diet, and I WILL beat it to death. And my books? They will be fabulous. I'm always fabulous when I suffer.
Good post Kirsten you left me wanting to know about the diet. I am 2 days shy of a six-month self-imposed prohibition of chocolate only to discover to my joy that chocolate is NOT the problem. So on at 12:01 am on Saturday back to the brownies, cakes, pies and M&Ms I've missed.
ReplyDeleteOhhhhh....you are one of the lucky ones....enjoy the chocolate...mmmmm...chocolate....
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to have you a as a blogger. I enjoyed getting you know you at the Retreat, and will enjoy learning more about you from your writing. Welcome aboard!
ReplyDeleteHey, welcome to my replacement spot. It's been well worth it for me to retire, because did you note that Marsha called me "beloved Anna?" Actually I retired because Wednesdays became too full with a temple shift all morning and a writing class in the evening. So have I written any on my own blogs? Well, I'm still planing to.
ReplyDeleteToday I'm reading the ANWA blogs, and loving it. Even responding as I go. And I know about the internet and emails and telephones and family getting in the way. I've dabbled in Facebook just enough to know i don't really have time for it yet. But you'll figure a way around all that, and enjoy being on the blog team.
You've got one great thing going for you. Being good at so many skills should help writing about them. In my almost 85 (give me 27 more days) years of life, I've pursued several careers myself. I was totally wooden on stage in my high-school years, but a natural in my sixties. I don't paint or sculpt, but I knit, crochet, latch, tat, embroider, needlepoint and have perhaps a hundred kits saved up to do some time or other. My closet and under the bed is full of yarn, and I'm still aiming to have enough knit and crocheted cotton dishcloths to give one to everybody who attends my funeral. (Only trouble is I don't know how many that will be, but so far I'm up around 575.
I wrote a novel and have a couple of rejection slips to prove it. So I joined ANWA and decided to write my memoirs instead. I've got somewhere between 150 to 200,000 words drafted and am rather splotchily up to 1964. I hope to get it all on paper by my birthday. I have no idea how in the world I'll ever get it shaped into something with any kind of order, but then, I haven't tried hard, either.
conshmi
Only problem is it sounds like work, and I've developed somewhat of an allergy to that.
So now you see why I'm so happy to have you aboard.