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I’d Like To Thank the Academy

It’s very cool when award committees come to you. For awards you never even knew about, never even applied for. This has never happened to me before. It will probably never happen again. I am honored, grateful, and a little bemused. Does anyone use that word anymore? Well, I just did.
Here’s an excerpt from the letter I got yesterday:

Congratulations Heather!

Your blog, Where The Butterflies Go, has been selected to receive the First Class Blogger Award. Your blog was chosen by a committee of four bloggers who feel Where The Butterflies Go exemplifies what a great blog can be. It is our belief that first class blogs are more about the effort and time the owner puts into their blog and less about its page rank or the number of visitors it gets.

Your site will be listed on January 9, 2011 with three others.

Keep up the great work and congratulations again!

Thank you, First Class Blogger Award Committee. This was a really nice surprise.

Thanks to my readers for making me want to keep writing every day.

Heather

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If Aaron Sorkin Worked At Hallmark

Don’t Blink: Day 5

I believe that every day lived with laughter is a day well lived. Which is why I spent a few minutes of my morning writing silly greeting cards as if they were written by one of my favorite screenwriters.

I shared my good news about Blue Mountain Arts with a few friends, who were all very supportive (and didn’t actually come out and say what I know you’re all thinking, “Hey, Heath, you’d be perfect for that, cheese ball.” So thanks for that guys…I think).

Aaron tells me he applied to work for Hallmark once, and that he didn’t get the job. I think he’s being dry, but I never know with him. He did, after all, work delivering singing telegrams for a while. The image of him writing Hallmark cards got me giggling out loud, and then writing, and then giggling some more.

Rejected Hallmark Cards, by Aaron Sorkin

Another year older? Stop whining. Just stop. Do it. Do it now.
*

Birthdays are not nice on so many levels.

*

I spent $4.99 on this card for you. NO I DO NOT
USE FACEBOOK OR TWITTER. STOP ASKING ME, YOU NETWORKED NUTJOB.

*

What are friends for?

Telling you what you don’t want to hear, and annoying the hell outta you.
You, my friend, do an excellent job.

*

Specifically for Sarah Palin:

Happy Martin Luther King Day,
you phony pioneer girl.

*

I love you, but every single day, I wanna smack
you silly with a stale baguette. Happy Anniversary.

*

NB: These were all my words, in his style, or his favorite words, in my style–regardless, they aren’t direct quotes from any of his works or interviews–except for the “phony pioneer girl” quote, which I simply couldn’t resist recycling. I don’t think it was harsh. I think it was awesome.

Finally, Aaron, if you’re reading, (which I highly doubt ’cause I believe you’re writing a play, a sitcom, four movies, and taking a shower) congrats to you, Lauren, Ian, David Fincher, and the cast and crew for all the nominations and awards so far for The Social Network. No surprise there—it’s all well-deserved.

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Maybe the fortune was for the Zhu Zhu pets.

This morning, you handed me my fortune.

“All your hard work is about to pay off.”

Okay. I could look at this one of two ways.

1. Oh goody, my time has finally come!

2. This fortune is six months old. You found it
at the bottom of my hot pink purse, which you
emptied because your Zhu Zhu pets needed
a fashionable home.

Is there a warranty on fortune cookies?

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Don’t Blink Project: Day 1

365 Days of Living Deliberately

How insignificant we seem; how trivial our troubles become, when our world is seen from high above the clouds. We are but a small speck in the palm of this great galaxy, yet each of us leaves our mark on every living creature we touch, talk to, type to— even Tweet. Every new day holds promise—it’s up to us what we do with that promise.

Sometimes, I feel so much pressure, so many To-Do’s, so overwhelmed. I squeeze every minute out of the day, until I’m running on empty. There are times I don’t even remember how I lived it—or if I lived it.

I’ve come to realize that the moments that matter the most to me—the ones I hold closest to my heart—were not full days or full weeks. They were mere moments. Minutes with tiny wings, fluttering by like fragile butterflies. If I’d blinked, I’d have missed them.

I don’t want to blink. I want to take each new day and hold it in my hand. Not like the tight fist I make when I’m frightened, or cold, or just being stubborn–but a wide open palm, welcoming a butterfly to rest its wings there for a while.

I want to experience each day fully—good and bad. To live in the moment, then let it go.

The first time our young daughter caught a snowflake on her tongue. The look on my father’s face as we danced on my wedding day. My mother singing along to Bon Jovi, inciting our feisty toddler to reply back, “No, it’s MY life!” My husband giving up his airplane window seat (and holding my Starbucks coffee for me) so I could capture images of the sun rising over the Rockies on the first morning of a new year.

This is a promise to myself to stop and take more careful notice of something or someone in my life, every single day.

Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it. I hope you’ll join me on my small adventure.

Sun Rising Over Rocky Mountains, Jan. 1st, 2011
Early Morn Over the Rockies, January 1st, 2011
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More Respect In 2011! More Respect!

Our cat Sam deserves more respect in 2011. He gets dressed in pink tutus and wrapping paper and put inside boxes and stockings and backpacks. He doesn’t complain as long as he gets fed, but I think 2011 should be his year of respect. Or at least his year of fame on this blog, as he is rather photogenic. Happy New Year everyone.
Sam was not harmed in any way for this photo, plus, he got our turkey scraps.