Christmas Cheer!

I love Christmas. I'm not religious but I love all the decorations, baking, wrapping gifts and visiting family. With the loss of my brother in law this year, there seems to be a big cloud hanging over this year's season. I got so sad and frustrated the other day that I almost quit Christmas for good. Having the Christmas lights wrapped up from the wrong end didn't help matters much. For many years I've battled not having decorating the Christmas tree turn into a chore. Working so much though turns everything else into a chore. I love looking at all the decorations- many that I've had since I was a kid. My Mom used to buy us decorations every year with the date on them from Hallmark. I have some from the '70's. I even have a tiny paper Christmas card with Merry Christmas written in German inside that came from my parents first Christmas tree in the '60's- which I can't find this year and has just added to the bad vibes. I'm glad that I made the effort to finish decorating the tree even though I didn't put every ornament on it. I found a cache of red bows that I tied with glee all over the tree which made it look great and gave it a finished look. I love when it's plugged up and the beautiful colored lights glow. A Christmas tree always makes me happy.

But with my Brother in law gone it makes me feel a little guilty too. I'm still in shock he's gone and it's still devastating the the family. Funny that it's hanging over Christmas because my bro-n-law didn't like Christmas. He hated the pressure of getting gifts and just like my husband HATES going to a crowded Mall to have to shop. In the last few years he had gotten me a gift certificate from Amazon which I LOVED. He could go online and get them emailed to us. Who would've known that a simple email would mean so much to me now. I happened to have never deleted the email I got last year announcing the gift certificate. It was a simple message at the time but one of my most prized possessions now. "Merry Christmas! I love you." said the email and it was signed.
That's what Christmas is about to me. For me it's the one day that there is no question that I have a great family that loves me. I don't have to think about anything else for 24 hours but how happy I am to be with my family. This year I'll be incredibly sad that my husband doesn't have his brother to call to talk to on Christmas day. His parents will have Christmas alone this year. All we can do is remember how much we loved him and that he loved us too.

Rough Cuts look great

While the trip out to LA was hard, I saw the rough cuts today and maybe it was all worth it. They look great. Hopefully this will be another round of commercials that everyone will talk about. No matter what you do, some folks love 'em and some folks hate 'em. These I can be proud of. Not everything we do at our advertising agency is great. These are and I'm happy to be a part of them. My last deal continues to unravel so that puts a damper on the whole campaign. That's unfortunate.

Otherwise, I'm at a crossroads in my life now. Wondering if working 9-9 5 days a week is worth it. Seems like I'm always at work. So I'm torn between feeling lucky I have a job but also feeling like all I do is work and my life is passing me by. I guess that's a struggle that millions of Americans have. Some don't have a choice but to work two jobs to just make ends meet. But at the end of the day, I see my parents about 4 times a year and my sister and her family about the same. I have Aunts that live a state away that I haven't seen in 8 or so years. I have an 80+ year old Grandmother who I've only visited twice in the last 6 months. Seems like the regrets are piling up. Decisions to make..........

I'm lucky to have a great husband that I get to spend every day with. Girls, there are great guys out there. You just have to look and decide not to play games. He's the best ever and the best thing I ever did was marry him. The thought of him always makes me smile.

Blogs are interesting aren't they? I've looked back at my first three blog posts and I keep wondering what I was thinking when I wrote them. Ha!

Have a great day! Love somebody today. Help someone out today. Make time for your loved ones today. Make a donation to your favorite charity today. They'll take $5!

Peace-

SH2H

Drama Queens

Funny how you would think that Hollywood is full of drama queens. On this trip, I've met nothing but incredibly nice and good folks. Although referring to people as 'folks' seems to trip up folks out here- they don't quite get it. Folks will always be folks to me.

I'm struggling this trip with too many cooks in the kitchen. Out in Hollywood, there are two speeds- dead stop and full steam ahead. That's the way it seems that deals are done here, either full steam ahead or no word from anyone. It's funny to be charged with 'push for an answer, .......but not to hard', or 'we need an answer today........but only if it's the answer we want'. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that everything turns out in the end.

Also everyone asks me if I'm enjoying my trip- NO!!! Being on the road this time has not been fun in the least. But I'll sacrifice fun for great spots, which we are getting. Hooray for commercials.

Call time's almost here. I'm working to get one last deal from full stop to full speed ahead........without pushing too hard............;-)

Hope everyone has a great day. Think about someone else's needs today and help them out. Say a kind word to someone who needs it- who may not be your friend.

Or translated.........don't be an asshole today.

Fun with Celebs

The shoots are going great. The celebs, which you'll see soon enough on your TV, are wonderful. It's exciting to meet such wonderful people. Not everyone in LA has lost touch with reality. Actually, when I think about it, none of our celebs live in LA so that may explain it. I have several contracts signed and several to go. It's amazing how everyone else gets their time but I always seem to have to pull off miracles in no time. I have so far so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Sometimes I wonder if all the worry is really worth it. I've been really thinking about what's really important in life this last month or so. South Hominy to Hollywood- is it really for me?

Hope you have a good day. Be kind to someone today. It's not that hard. ;-)

I'm a blogger now

Hi Everyone! I'm officially a blogger now. I'll start by explaining my title.

I was born in North Carolina and lived in a little town called Candler and even smaller, South Hominy. I lived at the foot of Mt. Pisgah in the Great Smokey Mountains. I'm as country as they get (but I don't eat sausage gravy but that's a different story). My job with an advertising agency takes me to Los Angeles every now and again. I'm currently sitting in a production office in Hollywood waiting on a celebrity to arrive so we can have a rehearsal and fitting.

Let me say that Hollywood is figuratively and literally a long way from South Hominy.

So there you go. Mystery solved.