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Obviously, the Year of Living Differently has come to a bit of a standstill.  There are a bunch of different reasons for this.

First, I got busy.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I sold an idea for a TV movie and I basically have about 3 weeks to turn that idea into a full-blown script.  Between my full time job, my Vegas work, and trying to birth a screenplay, I just haven’t had much time to do anything else.

The good news is that I finished the first draft of the movie in about a week and am currently doing some polishing before I send it off.  It’s in better shape than I would have expected and while certainly not perfect, it’s got some good stuff in it.  I made myself laugh a few times and that’s always a good thing, I think.

The second reason is because I was losing track of what TYOLD was intended to be.

I had wanted this to be fun – a way to break out of my doldrums of doing the same thing every day.  I thought a little variety would do me good.

But along the way I discovered that people are creatures of habit for a good reason: it’s easier.  We get up at roughly the same time every day because that’s easier on our bodies.  We have a morning routine because it helps both mentally and physically to get the day started.  We take the same route to work because it’s the fastest way to get there.  We eat things we’ve had before because we know we like them and can digest them.  And in the precious little time that we may have free, if all we want to do is sit on the couch and watch “The Voice,” well then that’s what we should do.

Coming up with something different to do every day was becoming an obligation.  It had stopped being fun.

Interestingly, I haven’t stopped doing different things.  I got to see the second act of Book of Mormon finally (thank you Maureen); ate a couple of new restaurants; and what else?  Oh yeah, I finished a freakin’ movie in a week.  Suck on that, differently.  I just didn’t do it every day and I didn’t stress out about it.

So, I’m taking a little break from the Differentlies.  I need to get the movie polished and submitted and then spend a little time trying to figure out how to recapture the spirit of what TYOLD was supposed to be.

I’m going to start again – maybe as early as next week when I’m off to Chicago on vacation.  I have all sorts of cool things planned including a visits to several museums I’ve never visited, an architecture tour, and a trip to Dubuque to see a friend from high school and maybe ride a funicular.   I may not be doing and/or posting every day for a little while but I think I will get back to that pace eventually.

Thanks for reading – stay tuned.

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